Wicked Game
by misshastix
Summary: If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of sibling, you seek revenge, right? If your brother's accused of a terrible crime but says he didn't do it, you defend him, don't you? When Santana and Brittany meet, two very different worlds collide.
1. the world is on fire

**AN: Story idea (and summary) originates from 'You Against Me' by Jenny Downham, however the stories will not be entirely the same :)**

**The story will contain swearing and elements/mentions of rape, so this is a TRIGGER warning.**

* * *

_Tick tock.  
_Upon Brittany's chipped wood dresser, sat a small yellow analogue clock that emitted the small noise that reminded Brittany that though it didn't seem like it as she lay down in her bed, tangled in her pale yellow bedsheets, that time was still moving forward, and sooner or later, she was going to have to get up and face another day.

_Tick tock.  
_A door to Brittany's left slammed. Even if the person who had shut it had closed it softly, Brittany had no doubt that she would still be able to have heard it through the four paper thin walls that held up the small, cramped space that she considered to be her bedroom.

_Tick tock._  
Pujo, the small fluffy white dog that lived in the apartment next door to them, started wailing and whining. The small noises of distress became louder and more high-pitched as each second passed. Brittany then heard a loud bang and assumed that whoever lived on the other side of the apartment next door had thrown something at the wall to shut the dog up.  
An unsettling silence took over.

_Tick tock._  
She heard someone turn on the coffee maker and wondered if her mother was finally awake. She heard the half-broken machine sputter and Brittany was positive that one day somebody, not her though, was going to turn it on and it would blow up, and she would rub it in everyones face because she had all told them from day one that that thing was going to blow up. She had called it.

_Tick tock.  
_"Brittany?" Brittany turned over onto her side, splaying her arms over her pillow as if holding it would keep her from falling off the bed. Megan, her five year old sister, stood at the door.

She looked almost like Brittany had when she was five, except Megan's hair was a bleach blonde, almost white, and her eyes were so pale that they looked like icicles.  
She was dressed in one of Brittany's old t-shirts and it was so big on her that half of it was under her dirty feet.

"What is it, Megan?"

Brittany's voice still sounded sleepy even though she had woken up about an hour ago. Her voice was scratchy and hoarse from screaming at her other younger sister the night prior, and Megan's eyes widened once she'd heard it. Brittany's voice had always used to sound like marshmallows and unicorns, everything good in the world. She used to sing Megan to sleep every night after reading her a fairytale, but not anymore.

Not since the 'incident.'

"Felicity won't get out of bed."

Brittany sighed and pressed her index fingers against the bridge of her nose in irritation. It was a sentence that the five-year old had said so many times before the past few months and it was a sentence that she shouldn't have been saying at all. It wasn't just a mere sentence that stated the laziness of their other sister; it was a statement that meant that Felicity was exactly the same that she had been the day before.

Broken, shattered, mentally absent, catatonic. The doctor's and medical professional gave off so many words and Brittany had forgotten most of them.

It stirred emotions in Brittany that she had never really felt before. Pain, anger, hurt, betrayal. She'd never really felt them before, at least not this hard. Not even when their good for nothing father left them behind with the severe alcoholic who claimed that she was their mother.

"I'll get her out," Brittany promised as the five-year-old blonde stuck her swollen thumb in her mouth. Brittany was sure that their mother had smacked Megan one too many times for not ridding herself of that habit, but it didn't seem to phase her.

Brittany smiled a tiny smile at her younger sister, who even in her young years, looked at her doubtfully.

"Mom's awake."

"Is she?" this piqued Brittany's curiosity. She barely remembered a time when her mother was awake. She was either so drunk that it wasn't really considered being awake, or she had passed out from whatever she had consumed prior. She wondered why her mother was awake so early in the morning, and on a weekday too, until it suddenly occurred to her.

The social worker was coming today.

The covers of Brittany's bed had never been flung back so fast. She rushed out of bed, wearing nothing but an old sweatshirt and her underwear, and scooped up Megan from under her armpits before they dashed to their dirty old bathroom. Brittany had always been meaning to clean it but she had never really found the time. Not between part-time studying and working full-time, doing both of those all the time meant she barely had time for anything else.

She ran the water as Megan began to try and head back out the bathroom door, but Brittany shut and locked it just in time.  
"You have to have a bath," she told her. Megan pouted and crossed her stick-thin arms across her tiny chest. "I don't wanna!"

Brittany wrinkled her nose. "When was the last time you had a bath, Megan?"

A funny look crossed over Megan's face. "Yesterday."

It was a blatant lie. Brittany could tell when people were lying, she always had. Sometimes they looked away for the briefest moment before they spoke the untruth, others could look you dead in the eye as they lied, but they would always twitch oh-so-slightly as they did so. Megan was five and since she obviously hadn't mastered any other lying techniques, Brittany was definitely not fooled.

She gave her sister a small smack, not enough to hurt, but hard enough to serve as a warning, for lying.  
"Don't lie," she scolded as she dipped her finger in the water, swirling it around slightly. It was warm and Brittany wished that she could curl up into the bathtub and just lay there until the water became cold. But she couldn't, because she was the oldest, and thanks to their mother, also the one that was the most responsible.

Megan stuck out her lower lip slightly and it wobbled. "If I have to take a bath, does Felicity?" she shrugged out of the giant sweatshirt. Brittany contemplated throwing it out because it just stunk so bad, but she wasn't sure she would be able to afford another one.

"If she wakes up in time," Brittany eventually said. She just chastised her sister for lying, and she realised she couldn't really say 'yes' or 'no' without lying herself.

Right now, she was Megan's only hope in having a better life, she had better be a good example.  
Megan stepped hesitantly into the water but relaxed once she felt the warmth.  
She sat down in the tub and Brittany handed her a small rubber toy that she was sure at one point had belonged to the dog next door.

"Will you be okay here for a few minutes?" Brittany was kneeling by the tub, swirling her index finger around in the water still.  
"Yes," Megan said, as she dipped her shampoo-filled head slightly in the water.

"Call out if you need any help," Brittany told her sternly, before she helped herself up using the rim of the bathtub. She smiled reassuringly at her sister, whose doubtful face seemed to be a permanent one on her later before she crossed into the room across the hall.

"Felicity?"

There was no response although in the dim light Brittany could make out a human-shaped outline lying on the bed.

"Can you get up?"

Silence.

She heard the figure move slightly.

"Felicity, the social worker is coming today. You remember her, don't you? She comes once a week. Every Wednesday. She's going to want to talk to you. She's friends with the lawyers. If you be nice to her, maybe it will help more."

Still nothing.

"I know you're awake, Felicity."

She heard her sister grunt in response and Brittany stepped closer into her room. It hadn't been vacuumed in awhile and she could feel the dust that settled underneath her feet.

"Megan's in the bath. Do you want to take a bath with her?"

"No."

Brittany sometimes forgot what her sister even sounded like sometimes. Before the 'incident', you could never get Felicity to shut up. She used to sing every chance she got, which had in turn encouraged Brittany to sing sometimes even though Brittany had never known she could sing. Brittany used to wish that her parents had never had another kid after her but once Felicity could walk and talk, Brittany had never regretted anything more. Felicity had been her everything, her only friend.

Brittany had never been great with other people, but when Felicity had begun high school with her, she'd been determined to be someone who would make her sister proud, and when she had, she had never felt more on top of the world.

But now everything was fucked up, so fucked up.

"She has a toy in there. Maybe you could both play with it."

What other toys had any of them even owned? Brittany had a small stuffed unicorn, named 'Unicorn' that she had had ever since she was born, but most of the fur had fallen off and one of the eyes was missing. The horn had also split down the middle and Megan was too terrified to even look at it even though it was about the same size as her head.

They couldn't afford to splurge on luxuries such as toys. Not when there were mouths to feed.

"No."

"Felicity, I know it's hard," Brittany's tone became gentle. "But you need to get up now. The social worker's coming and if she sees you like thi-"

"I don't care!"

Felicity's voice was so loud that Brittany was sure if she knew her mother was not awake, that she would have awoken at Felicity's outburst no matter how drunk she was.

"Felicity, I-"

"No, Brittany. I don't _care."_

Brittany bit her lip and felt a small surge of anger rising within her. "You should care. If you don't fucking do this then you have no chance of winning your case. Is that what you want?"

There was another bout of silence, but suddenly Felicity got up and swung her legs over her bed, facing Brittany. Seeing Felicity both scared and angered Brittany.

Felicity had always looked a little different from the rest of them. Maybe she looked more like their dad, who knew? She had very long light brown hair that reached her waist. They always used to have fun together doing it up in different ways and making Felicity more pretty. Megan used to join in and tie bows around her long locks as well, but that had been so long ago. Now it hung limply by her side, knotted and oily.

Her eyes which used to be a type of bright green now looked like they had been dipped in mud. They were blank and unstaring even though she was looking directly at Brittany. Her eyebags which had never existed before made her face look droopy and unappealing, even though Brittany was sure that the only thing Felicity did nowadays was sleep.

"Felicity?"

Felicity's eyes shot to Brittany's and Brittany expected her to be angry. Felicity had never sworn before, and she hated it when Brittany swore, no matter what word it was. But whatever anger and malice she had held in her voice before had apparently gone. Ignoring Brittany, she walked straight past her, and Brittany wondered how she even managed to hold her body upright on legs so thin, and straight into the bathroom.

She heard Megan greet her older sister, and she heard Felicity murmur something in reply. Brittany stood there for a few moments more before she let her body slip from the doorframe she had been leaning against, and curled up into a small ball on the dirty floor.

* * *

"I learnt how to count to fifteen in school. Do you want to hear? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven-"

"Okay, Megan, enough. Mommy has a headache. Not now, okay?"

The four of them sat around their small dining table. Megan's legs were curled underneath her in an attempt to be able to see over the table, and she closed her mouth with a definite pout as her mother told her to be quiet. She had been so proud to learn how to count that high and now she couldn't even show her mom. All she wanted to do was to make her proud.

Brittany saw the look and squeezed her younger sister's hand underneath the table. "You can tell me later," she whispered and Megan smiled slightly. Felicity looked at both of them but didn't say anything. Brittany didn't either, but she was relieved that at least everybody looked somewhat presentable.

"Do you have your schoolbag ready? Your bookbag? Lunch?"  
Megan nodded. "I set them all in the hallway. Maybe today I'll learn to count higher and I can show you when I get home."

"Definitely," Brittany agreed. She looked up at their mother who had stood up and was now rummaging through the fridge. She had been surprised when her mother offered to make breakfast but couldn't help but feel doubtful when ten minutes had passed and their mom hadn't brought anything to the table yet.

"We're out of milk."

"Is there bread? We can make toast?"

"Do you really think there's bread here, Brittany?" her mother snapped, suddenly whipped her head around to glare at her oldest daughter. Megan's lips wavered slightly and Brittany sighed. "It's no big deal. I'll run to the store and buy some now."

Before anyone had a chance to say anything, Brittany disappeared from the table and run to her room. In her room, she found her stuffed unicorn and slid her finger into the horn that was split open. A couple of coins fell into her hand and she disappeared out the front door moments later.

The store wasn't far, but Brittany still ran anyway. The social worker would be there any moment to question Felicity further and to make sure that they weren't neglecting Megan. She picked up the nearest pint of milk and sat it on the counter as the salesclerk ran it up.

"Brittany?"

Brittany whipped around. "That's two dollars, miss."  
Brittany turned around again and handed her few coins to the person who murmured a thanks.

"Puck, what are you doing here?"

Puck stood next to the ice-creams and he smiled at her, making Brittany relax slightly. She'd known Puck since Primary School and the two had been fast friends. They'd lost their virginity to each other, and although Brittany didn't particularly regret it, she knew if she went back in time, she never would have done it.

"Buying bread," he swung a piece of loaf around in his hand. His receipt was held in the other hand. Brittany grabbed her milk and her receipt and walked up to him. He opened the door for her and they headed out.

"How's Felicity?" his voice softened slightly.

"The same," Brittany replied. She gripped the milk tightly. If she dropped it, she wouldn't be able to afford another.  
"The social worker is coming this morning. I have to head back."

"I'll walk you," he said and Brittany was glad for the company.

"What's the social worker do?"

Brittany shrugged slightly. "Just makes sure that Megan's okay. She knows my mom's a bit of a well, deadbeat, so she wants to make sure that Megan's being cared for. But she mainly works on Felicity's case. You know," she paused slightly before she spat out the next word. "_Alexandro_ is pleading innocent. He's saying he didn't do it."

Saying the name out loud left a bitter taste on Brittany's tongue.

Puck's fist clenched. "What a fuckhead. I'll kill him myself. Make him regret he ever did it."

She wished Puck could. Alexandro Lopez was only about a year older than them, anyway. Brittany shrugged to herself at the thought.

"If he did it."

Puck's fist unclenched and he looked at her, surprised. "You think Felicity's making it up?"

"No! I mean, I don't know. There were no witnesses. I mean. I just don't know how this is going to hold up in court. It's his word against hers, and you know that we can't afford a fancy lawyer like the..Lopez's can. Their lawyer is going to crush our free one."

"Well of course there were no witnesses," Puck scoffed before he could stop himself. "No-one is going to let other people be around when they..rape someone."

The word made Brittany's bones freeze. "Yeah," she eventually replied. "I guess."

"I'm sorry," Puck put his hand on Brittany's shoulder as they stopped outside her apartment block. "I didn't mean too.."

"It's alright," Brittany cut him off. "I have to go."

* * *

The five of them sat on the Pierces' tattered couches.

"Did you enjoy your breakfast?" the social worker, Ashlee, smiled at Megan. Brittany could be thick sometimes, but she knew it was just a subtle way of finding out if Megan had even had breakfast. Megan nodded eagerly. "Yes, it was great," she sounded too enthusiastic and the social worker seemed to realise it too. "That's good."

"I better take Megan to school now," their mother sat furthest away from Ashlee. She twiddled her fingers against each other anxiously. She knew her breath smelled like alcohol. What if they tried to take Megan away from her?

Brittany couldn't help giving a surprised gasp, though she subtlety made it sound like she was whistling. Ashlee didn't seem to notice, but she waved goodbye to Megan and their mother. Brittany briefly wondered if their mother even knew where Megan went to school and she narrowed her eyes questioningly at her. Brittany's mother saw them but didn't say anything.

She gave Brittany a sharp look and then she disappeared, picking up Megan's bags in the hallway.

The three of them sat awkwardly on the couch. Ashlee turned to Brittany. "How's work?"

"It's good. I'm teaching the six year olds now, so I get paid more."

"That's great," Ashlee beamed and Brittany smiled back tentatively. She loved dancing, and when she had gotten the offer to teach little children to dance she was overjoyed. It was her lifelong dream to get scouted by someone and become a professional dancer.

Maybe one day when Megan was grown up.

"Who baby-sits Megan while you're working?"

"Mother does," Brittany said. "Or sometimes I work when she's at school."

"That's good. Congratulations, Brittany."

Felicity hadn't said anything since the social worker arrived and the social worker turned to her. "Do you mind if Brittany's here with you or do you want to talk alone?"

Felicity didn't reply so Brittany nudged her slightly.

"I don't mind."

"Okay," Ashlee nodded, and Brittany couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for her. It must suck to have to counsel people who wouldn't even talk to you.

"I don't want to beat around the bush, but Alexandro Lopez is out of jail today. They are not legally obliged to hold him because there's no evidence."

Brittany knew her sister was about to snap. She could tell by the way that Felicity kept crossing and uncrossing her legs uncomfortably. Her still-damp hair hung unbrushed in front of her face. "What?" she managed to utter. "Why do they need evidence?"

Ashlee looked slightly uncomfortable. "They're not saying you're lying, honey, it's just the law. They can't hold anyone unless there's proof."

"But there was a witness! She was there!"

"I know, honey," Ashlee said, brushing Felicity's bangs out of her face. Felicity flinched and edged so far back into the couch that Brittany knew she wanted to disappear into it. She murmured an apology for Felicity but nobody seemed to hear it.  
"She's saying she went to sleep when her brother told her too, which was at the start of the night."

"She's lying!" Felicity screamed, edging forward into Ashlee's face. "She's lying! She was there! I saw her. She covered me with the blanket at the end of the night. _She was there!"_

"Please calm down," Ashlee said pleadingly. "It's my responsibility to update you on what is going on in your court case. I would love to help you, Felicity, you should know that, but I can't make them believe that."

Brittany knew they were talking about Alexandro's sister and she kind of wanted to bash her too. If she was there, wouldn't she have heard something? Saw something?

"She's still sticking to her story, and Felicity I have to be honest, she's most likely going to stick with it, whether it be the truth or a lie."

The social worker kept talking and Brittany suddenly wanted to leave. An idea was plaguing her mind. Alexandro Lopez was out of jail today, huh?

"Brittany, is it okay if you leave?"

Brittany snapped back to attention and she felt Felicity and Ashlee's eyes on her. She knew why they wanted her to leave. Felicity was going to tell Ashlee about the way he had touched her, what had happened exactly. Felicity had been fine with Brittany sitting in with her the first time, but when she'd heard about the way that the monster had touched her baby sister, she had exploded.

It had taken Ashlee and their mother to restrain her from marching down to that bastard's house and castrating him. She wrung her hands in her shorts.

"Yeah. I'm going to head out. Mom will be home before you leave."

Ashlee nodded in response and Felicity looked away guiltily. Brittany looked at her briefly and touched Felicity's shoulder gently, but Felicity flinched. Ever since that incident, nobody could ever touch her.

She stepped outside their apartment and walked outside. They lived in a shifty place, full of illegal immigrants assumably, or just poor people in general. Nobody was ever been mean to them, but it was a very mind-your-own business type of place, and thats what the Pierces' had done the entire time they had lived there.

Brittany dreamed one day of living in a proper house, even a proper apartment, where they didn't need to worry about the people around them. Where neighbours would have BBQ's and Megan could have friends over, and Felicity would be able to play outside without being scared of every other person around.

Maybe one day.

The look that had been on Felicity's face plagued Brittany's mind and she suddenly felt an uncontrollable anger build within her. How could someone..touch her sister like that? How could someone ruin someones life and not think of the consequences? How could someone do that for just a little 'pleasure'?

She kicked her foot into the ground angrily, sending dust flying upward. Something buzzed in her pocket and she answered it.

"What?"

"That's a rude way to answer your phone."

"Fuck off, Sam. What do you want?"

"I just wanted to say good morning to my girlfriend. What's wrong with you?"

Brittany kicked her foot against the curb again. She wanted to kill Alexandro so bad. She wanted to feel him squirming underneath her as she dealt a final blow. As she got revenge for her sister.

A sharp breath escaped from her mouth. Brittany had always been a peaceful person. She was the one who made jokes all the time, she had been the class clown. Everyone had loved her even if she was a bit daft.

Who was the person she had become?

But she knew why she was like this. Her family was so far from perfect, but it had been alright. They had gotten along, they had gotten by, and that was what was important in the meantime.

But no, this 'incident', this fucking thing that that bastard had started, he had fucked it up. Their lives would never be normal again. Felicity was a fucking mess and Brittany, sunshine-happy, rainbows and butterflies Brittany, had to step up and be more adult than she had ever been in her life.

There was no more time for jokes, no time for happiness. No time for love.

"You there?"

"Not in the mood."

Sam's voice softened. "You know I care about you."

"Yeah."

"I'll talk to you later then. Call me when you want to talk?"

"Yeah."

Brittany hung up. She had no intention of ever calling him back. She didn't even know why she was dating Sam. She had started right after this incident. He had been chasing her since forever, and though he was pretty cute, and nice, and decent, she'd never really been interested. She didn't know why but she never had the energy to question it.

But when this shit had happened. She'd eventually agreed to date him. Sam thought that Brittany had finally given in to her feelings for him, but the reality was, Brittany was doing it just to feel something that wasn't anger.

Anger.

She knew where she was going to go, and what she was going to do.

She walked all the way up the fancy estate where she knew the Lopez's lived. She'd never known Alexandro. He'd gone to the fancy private school just like his sister probably did. Brittany had gone to the public school down the road. But she'd knew who he was when she saw him.

And soon enough, he'd know who she was too.

It was a far walk. Her phone rang twice but she ignored it. It was probably Puck, anyway. She stopped outside the gates that she had only ever been too once before, when the police had come here. She'd gone here with Felicity, who had identified the house.

She looked up at it. It wasn't really a house. It was a mansion placed smack in the middle of a large estate. It made of heavy white concrete, and had four massive pillars guarding the sides of the entrance. A dark grey, almost black Maserati was parked off to the side, amongst a Rolls Royce and several other cars.

Brittany's stomach clenched in anger. Her family could barely afford milk and here these people were, splurging on cars.

The estate was surrounded by a large black fence, which had sharp edges at the top. Off to the side was a grey brick wall and Brittany had no trouble scaling up it. She had gone through a tomboy phase and it was like childs play to her. She dropped over on the other side and walked undaunted to the front stairs.

She passed the Maserati and assumed that it belonged to Alexandro, because of the number plate. She looked defiantly up at the house and held out one long finger nail as she walked along the length of the car, cringing only slightly as she heard the perfect paint job being ruined.

She walked up to the front door and stood in front of it for awhile. This was probably high up there on her list of terrible ideas, but she didn't care. Alexandro would answer the door, fresh from being out of jail. She would pounce on him. Her weight would be enough to knock him to the floor. She would straddle him and she would punch, and punch, and punch the life out of him.

But he would see her face. He would know he shouldn't have fucked with her family. She didn't care if she got caught. Maybe if she exacted some kind of justice then it would be enough for Felicity to walk around outside again, for her to be hugged by her friends and family. It would be worth whatever punishment she got.

She ignored the doorbell and slammed her fist heavily on the hard wooden door. She felt pain shoot through her arm but she ignored it as she anticipated what she was about to do.

* * *

The large white door opened and Brittany felt her mouth suddenly grow dry. "Hi," was all she managed to utter as she felt her stomach begin to churn. Hi? Hadn't she been on a mission to exact revenge?

But the person who had answered the door, and the person who now stood in front of her wasn't the person that she wanted to exact revenge on. It wasn't the despicable teenage boy who had fucked up Felicity's life.

It was a girl, around Brittany's age. She had long, thick black hair that Brittany was sure got conditioned and treated every day, and warm chocolate brown eyes, which were now sweeping over Brittany herself. Brittany felt like a bug under a microscope, everything about her was exposed, out in the open.  
The girls thin lips were pursed as she took in Brittany's obviously shabby appearance.

Brittany wanted to think bitterly of her. How much money had this girl wasted on such trivial items such as beauty or hair products? Brittany's own eyes dropped to the girls dress, which was seemingly too fancy for someone to be wearing if they were just lounging around at home. It was obviously made from some expensive material, and it had been ironed to perfection.

But for some reason, Brittany couldn't think badly of her. It was like there was a magnetic hold on her mind that wouldn't allow her to criticise the obviously spoiled princess that stood in front of her. She licked her lips nervously and the girl looked at her warily, the warmth in her eyes vanishing as she realised that she did not know the stranger on her porch.

"What do you want?"

The girl was upfront, and she spoke rudely. Brittany should have felt more annoyed, but she had never quite heard a voice like this girls. She spoke smoothly, but her voice sounded rough around the ages. It was entrancing. Brittany hadn't expected it. The voice sounded like a strange melody to her eyes, and although the other girl spoke rudely, she spoke with an unnerving confidence that Brittany used to hear in Felicity's voice, which reminded her of why she was here.

Brittany's eyes mirrored the other girls in discontent. She didn't know her name, but she assumed that this was Alexandro's sister. The only witness to the crime that may or may not have happened. A few minutes ago, the thought of Alexandro's sister even existing made Brittany want to throttle her, but for some reason she could not connect the 'Alexandro's sister who lied about her witness statement' to the beautiful brunette who stood in front of her.

"My name is Tina," Brittany lied through her teeth, glad that Megan wasn't here to hear her lie. So much for being role-model material, huh? "I'm looking for Alexandro."

"Isn't everyone?" the girl sounded tired and Brittany noticed the hint of dark shadows that circled around the girls eyes. There had been an attempt to cover it with make-up, but it hadn't particularly succeeded.

The girl let out a laugh that sounded sort of like a sick dog's bark. Brittany didn't know what to say. "Um." Why was she even here? Felicity's name haunted the back of her mind, and Brittany felt guilt race through her as the anger she had felt towards this family and all their snobbery began to face away the longer she looked into those chocolate coloured eyes.

"Are you a friend of his? Surely you know you're too early again?"

Brittany didn't know what the other girl meant, but she wished that the other girl would keep talking, not because Brittany didn't know what to say, but for reasons that were wrong for this type of situation.

She blinked a few times, and then looked up at the open door, past the girl. She couldn't bare to look at her again. The girl was stirring feelings up inside Brittany that had absolutely nothing to do with rage, anger or revenge and Brittany wanted them to stop. She was here for her sister, she had an agenda.

"Yeah," Brittany sounded like she was agreeing with her even though she had absolutely no idea what the other girl was on about.  
"But I wanted to see him before..you know."

Brittany didn't know, and she wasn't sure that the girl in front of her knew either. She didn't even know her name. She'd never bothered to ask. She had hated her just hearing that she was related to that..thing. Hated her because she had lied about her witness statement, which would condemn Felicity and free Alexandro. But there was no hatred now and Brittany didn't know why.

"Before everyone else arrived?" Brittany had no time to be relieved that the girl had thought of a reason because the girl threw her head back and laughed almost too loudly. Brittany hoped no-one else was home. What if the girls parents came and they recognised her?

Or Alexandro himself. She clenched her fist behind her back.

"I can't believe my parents are throwing him a party because he got out of _jail."_ She sounded so bitter about it and Brittany was taken aback. What did this girl even have to be bitter about? Other than her sadistic bastard of a brother, she seemed to be living the life.  
She looked angry and Brittany was taken aback. What was this girl playing at?

She didn't have time to mull it over because the words suddenly sunk in. This definitely was Alexandro's sister, but more than that, his parents were throwing him a _party _because he had gotten out of jail. They were celebrating the fact that their son could get off scot-free for fucking up her sisters life. She tensed. Megan had never had, or been too, a birthday party. And here these people were, celebrating an occasion that Brittany could never possibly imagine celebrating.

"Whatever," the girl spoke once she realised that Brittany wasn't going to say anything. She honestly thought the shabby looking blonde on her front porch was a bit weird, but she had never seen anyone like her. She wondered why there was a pull on her, a pull that wanted to get to know this girl, to keep her on her porch.

"He's not home at the moment, anyway," she continued, the slightly rude edge in her voice coming back. "My parents are out picking him up." She shook her head, clearing her mind of the interest she had in this girl who could possibly be a homeless beggar. She went to slam the door in the blonde's face but Brittany, being taller and stronger than her, stopped it in its tracks.

Even so, she tried to push it shut even harder, but Brittany forced it to stay open.

"Wait."

She stopped trying to shut the door but she didn't bother trying to open it either.

"What?"

"What's your name?"

The girl looked taken aback, but she sucked in a sharp breath of air before she replied. Was this girl really a friend of her brother's?  
But she realised she didn't care. She wanted this strange girl to know something about her.  
"Santana. My name is Santana."


	2. nobody can save me, but you

"Santana. My name is Santana."

The strange blonde girl on her porch pursed her lips, and without another word, she turned around, walked back down the steps in which she had walked up, and disappeared onto the Lopez's long and winding driveway. She passed the now damaged Maserati with a smirk.

Santana watched her leave, her palm resting flat against her front door. She did not notice the damaged car at all. She didn't even care about cars, all she cared about was this mysterious girl, who could very well be her brother's friend although she had never seen her before.

Eventually the girl disappeared from sight and Santana closed the door. She hesitated for a brief moment, and then slid the gold-plated lock across the door, just in case. Ever since her brother's arrest, there had been angry mobs outside of their estate. At night she would lie awake and wonder why, as she heard their outraged cries outside her bedroom window.

Surely they knew her brother was innocent? Surely they knew that her brother would never commit a crime so terrible? They had to know that the Pierce girl, Felicity, was just making stuff up to garner attention. She came from a low-income family. Her father had said so. She probably just wanted to the centre of attention in a big scandal, maybe she had thought she'd make money off it. Who knew? All Santana knew was that Alexandro was the golden boy of the family, the older brother that everybody wished they had had when they had been growing up, and Santana was lucky enough to be blessed with being his younger sister.

She grabbed a fistful of the silly dress her parents had made her put on and wrinkled it in her grasp. It was way too early to be wearing something so stupid. She hated them for it.

She walked down the foyer, passing a small inlet that used to be a 'time-out' corner of sorts for the two Lopez children. Now, there lay a large mat and two bowls. A very big dog, a black one with very long fur, lay curled up there. Santana walked over to him and kissed his muzzle gently, her lips grazing slightly over what seemed to be grey hairs.

Shadow had been her abuela's dog, but now that her parents had dumped her in a nursing home, Shadow was now theirs to look after until he passed on.

Ever since all this fuss had started, Shadow had been Santana's only friend. She had used to be popular, with both the boys and girls. Everybody wanted to be her friend, and all the boys wanted to date her. The teachers had given her endless praise, and she had even made the prestigious cheer team, but now that this 'incident' had occurred, everybody ostracised her. Nobody pursued her anymore, nobody gave her the extra notes that they had taken down. Nobody could even bother to give her the time of day.

The cheer captain instructor had even asked her to politely leave the team because apparently her presence was 'upsetting' for some. How was that even possible? It wasn't like she had made up some rape story to get any attention. She didn't understand why she was being punished for some other, dare she say, sluts' mistakes. It angered Santana that her entire family was lowering in status just because of some low-life girl and her little web of lies.

Because of it all, Santana hadn't been too school in weeks. Her school, the prestigious private all-girls school, Avalona Academy for Girls, had made the decision, along with Santana's mother and father, to keep her at home until the whole thing blew over. But would it ever really all blow over? Even when the Pierce girl admitted she had lied, people would just end up remembering them as the relatives of the boy-who-raped-this-girl-but-not-really.

She still had her SATs to study for, so for the past few weeks Santana's parents had confined her to her room and forced her to study for it; just like the police had decided to 'confine' Alexandro to jail before they had any _real _evidence of the crime he _did not _commit. Her parents spent all their time pacing around the house, but never outside, they hated being outside, or locked in the study with Alexandro's lawyer.

Santana disliked the lawyer. Well, dislike may be too weak a word. She _immensely _disliked the lawyer. His name was Brant.

She remembered the morning she had met him very clearly. She had awoken from her bed, and she had heard very loud, distinct voices from the central living area downstairs. She had tugged a t-shirt on over her singlet and she had walked over to the bannister, which overlooked the entire downstairs.

Her parents were standing there. Her mother had one arm around her brother, comforting him. Upon closer inspection, Santana realised he was crying. She wondered briefly if her abuela had died in the nursing home, but then she had noticed that the man that her father was talking too, was a police officer.

She had walked downstairs, but nobody bothered to acknowledge her presence. She had met her brothers eye but he had not said a word.

"What's going on?" she had asked. Her father turned to stare at her; his gaze was cold and hard, and it chilled Santana to the bone.

"These idiots are trying to arrest your brother."

Santana had briefly wondered if it was a prank. What could her brother possibly have done in order to warrant an arrest? A loud sob came from her brother and Santana looked at him. He looked ashamed to be crying in front of his little sister. He was a grown boy. He was supposed to be the strong one.

"You're kidding, right?"

"They are not," a very tall man, almost the same height as their father, burst in through the front door. He wore a dark blue suit and a startling red tie. It hurt Santana's eyes. She narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?"

Santana's father nudged her angrily. "Where are your manners? My apologies, Brant, please come into the study. Do not mind Santana, she obviously lacks manners so early in the morning."

Santana narrowed her eyes at him angrily, but Brant turned to her. "My name is Brant. Pleased to meet you, although the circumstances aren't great. You are Santana, right? One of the young ladies that the accuser was with claims that Santana Lopez is a witness." Brant turned to her father, ignoring Santana's cry of, "Witness to what?"

"Am I able to talk to her?"

"Yes, of course. If it will help her brother," Santana's father hesitated before he added on the last part of his sentence. What was that supposed to even mean?  
"It will help your brother, won't it?"

"Help him with what?" Santana exclaimed angrily, stomping her foot. Her mother put one hand on her shoulder to calm her down but she shrugged it off. "What's going on?"

"This way," Santana's father and Brant both ignored her and she had no choice but to follow them through the downstairs left hall into the study. Santana's father pulled out a seat for Brant, and he had gone to sit on the other one but Santana beat him too it, merely in an act of defiance. Her father sighed in defeat.

"I don't have time for your antics, Santana. Give Brant the information he _needs _to free your brother."

"From what?"

Santana's father walked out of his study door, slamming it behind him. Brant turned around and began to unpack things from his suitcase. His MacBook, a pen and a piece of paper.

"What's happening?" Santana asked for the fiftieth time. She began to feel like a broken record. Why wouldn't anyone give her answers?

"Felicity Ann-Marie Pierce is accusing your brother of sexual harassment."

"Of what? Who's that?"

"Lucy Quinn Fabray has also notified authorities that you were a witness to the crime, as you were noted as present in this household during the time of the crime."

"Who?"

Brant ignored her again. "I will need a witness statement of what exactly you saw or heard that night."

"What night?"

Brant sighed in exasperation. "Santana, I need your head in the game. Your older brother could go to jail for a crime he may not have committed. He needs your help, please shape up."

Santana felt a twinge of annoyance. "I fucking would if someone would explain what was fucking going on."

"No need for that type of language," Brant looked annoyed, but Santana couldn't care less. "A few weeks ago, notably on June the fifth, your brother and five of his friends were situated at his house from approximately the times between 6pm and 9pm. During that time, a young lady, Felicity Ann-Marie Pierce claims she was raped by your brother, Alexandro Lopez."

Santana sat there, dumbstruck, suddenly realising who Felicity was. "Raped?" she echoed, her mouth going dry. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that when she opened them, she would be somewhere else. But she wasn't. Brant looked at her expectantly.

"Yes. She claims that is what happened. Your parents have hired me to get to the bottom of it. Alexandro has pleaded innocent, of course, but Ms. Pierce is very persistent and it must be a fair trial. Lucy Fabray has claimed you were the only witness who was sober at the time of the incident."

Santana had opened her mouth to ask who the fuck Lucy was, when she suddenly realised. Lucy _Quinn _Fabray. She had thought that she hadn't known who Quinn was, but now she did. Her lips settled into a thin line.

"I need you to tell me exactly what you were doing between the times of 6pm and 9pm on the fifth of June. Exactly. Can you do that for me, Ms. Lopez?"

Santana's eyes ripped away from the lawyer, and she looked at the small portrait that hung on her father's study. It must have been taken about a year ago. But it was of her and Alexandro when they had taken a trip to Spain. He was piggy-backing her, though his face was contorted slightly in pain. Santana remembered it all too clearly.

Her father had taken the photo right before they were approached by a rabid dog. They weren't allowed out on the street but Santana had wanted to explore. Alexandro had gone with her after he realised he couldn't talk her out of it. The dog had come out of nowhere, and it had been seconds away from biting Santana. Alexandro had pushed her out of the way just in time, and he had moved quickly too, to avoid being bitten.

If it wasn't for her brother risking his own life, Santana wouldn't be here right now.

Her gaze drifted back to Brant.

"Yeah, I can."

* * *

_Santana heard the front door open. She had been sitting in the little inlet, her fingers clutching at Shadow's freshly groomed fur. The German Shepherd had licked her knee and Santana had giggled, alerting the others to her presence. Her brother had stopped right in front of the inlet, two of his friends were behind him.  
_  
_He introduced one as Sam, and the other as Finn, and then he had kept walking. Santana had gotten up to follow him, but Alexandro had told her to leave them alone. It had been the first time he had ever tried to get rid of Santana. He called her too young to hang around with them, even though there was only a two or three year age gap in between her and the other boys. She had gotten angry, so she had clenched her fists and had stormed upstairs._

_She came back down when she had finished the book she had been reading about an hour later. She stood by the bannister, leaning against it as she peered down at the people who were gathered in the central living area downstairs. There were now three girls sitting with the three boys in a circle. Santana had never seen any of these girls before, they definitely did not go to her school. They looked younger than her brother and his friends, maybe even younger than Santana herself._

_They all seemed to be really drunk. Peels of laughter came from all of them over seemingly nothing. Santana's eyes narrowed as she noticed that Alexandro had taken some alcohol and wine from their parents wine storage in the basement. He was going to be in so much trouble when they came home. Maybe she'd even tell on him, as payback for him not allowing her to hang around with them._

_The boy she recognised as Sam spun an empty plastic bottle that was in the middle of all of them. One end pointed at Finn, and the other at a girl with raven-coloured hair and big brown eyes. She had a large nose, but it didn't seem to get in the way of her getting her mack on with Finn. Santana sighed, her fingers clenched together. She wouldn't have minded being that girl. Even if her nose was big enough to be one of the wonders of the world._

_"Ge it, Rachel!" the girl that sat next to her hollered. She was very pretty, a lot prettier than pretty much all the girls at Santana's private all-girls school. She was thin, her legs curled underneath her, but not overly so. She was probably really athletic, because she looked it. She had light brown hair, and her eyes shone so bright that although Santana was really far away, Santana could tell they were a bright green._

_She wore the tiniest denim skirt that Santana had ever seen, which, given Santana's track record, was saying something. It was the type of apparel that Santana had to go out to town and purchase herself, because no way in a thousand years would her parents buy her something so revealing. She wore a simple white blouse over the top of it, which although was plain, still made her look really good. She probably had really good genes._

_Santana's eyes drifted to her brother who stared at the brown-haired, green-eyed girl intently. He obviously thought so too._

_"Shut up, Felicity!" the Rachel girl hissed, though she looked amused. So her name was Felicity. A pretty name for a pretty girl._

_Rachel spun the bottle next. One end landed on Felicity, and the other on..Alexandro?_

_Santana could barely contain a snort. Her brother was going to get his mack on with her? This was something she had to see. She hoped he fucked it up so she could laugh at him about it later._

_Alexandro inched forward tentatively. He looked nervous, and Sam smacked him on the back in what was probably supposed to be reassurance, but seemed to just make him more nervous. Felicity, on the other hand, didn't hold back. She leaned forward straight away, a big, silly smile on her face, and they kissed. Santana briefly wondered how old the other three girls were, especially Felicity. They all seemed even younger than Santana herself, but she gave it no more than a fleeting thought._

_The last unnamed girl wolf-whistled as they continued kissing after a good twenty seconds. Santana had to look away because the last thing she wanted was to see her brother making out with someone._  
_"Shut up, Quinn!" Felicity spoke after she finally pulled her lips away from Alexandro. Santana glanced back to look at Quinn, who even from her distance, seemed to radiate the strangest aura._

_Quinn was extremely perfect, to the point where it seemed unbelievable. She seemed slightly older than her two friends, who she turned to grin at. Out of pure chance, she looked up, and locked eyes with Santana. She didn't say anything though, perhaps she was too drunk and she thought she was imagining the girl standing up at the bannister._

_But Santana gasped when they made eye contact, feeling silly and embarrassed that she was spying on them like a silly five year old. Maybe she really was too immature too hang around with her brother and his friends. She turned around quickly and shut herself in her large room, feeling the blush spread over her cheeks. She placed her cold hands on either side of her face in an attempted to calm down._

_When she felt like she had, she walked over to her desk and sat down, opening her notes. She still had trigonometry to go over, as well as some more essay writing revision. Oh, and some Biology too._

_Santana eventually forgot about what had just happened and lost herself in her notes, until she suddenly heard a muffled cry from down the hall. She looked sleepily up at the time. It was 8:49pm and somehow over two hours had passed since she had immersed herself in study._

_How time flies when you're having fun, she thought sarcastically. She looked over at her window. It was dark outside._

_She looked back at her notes. She had at least finished all of her trigonometry exercises, and she had written half an essay. She quickly scanned over it, deciding that it looked pretty good if she did say so herself, when she suddenly heard the same muffled cry that had snapped her out of her study daze._

_She blinked, and slowly slid herself off of her chair, tip-toeing to her door. She opened it as quietly as she could, and walked back over to the bannister, peering over it. The light from the foyer was still on; Santana could see Shadow sleeping on his mat. The light from the kitchen and the central living area where the six teens had been before was on as well, but now, nobody was there._

_A couple of empty bottles lay scattered on their mother's exotic rug that she had imported from France. If anything had leaked out, she was going to kill Alexandro. Santana smiled at the thought, but that was the only evidence that proved that anybody had been there all day._

_Her gaze drifted over to the couch, noticing a figure slightly shrugged over it. Santana made her way down the stairs to investigate, and she recognised Quinn lying subdued. She was awake, but barely so. She had a bottle of water resting on the arm rest on the cream-coloured couch and Santana wondered if it was bitchy to ask her to move it in case it stained, but she decided against it because Quinn didn't particularly look 'all there.'_

_"You should sleep it off."_

_Santana's voice frightened Quinn, and she sat up, startled. She was so drunk she hadn't even noticed Santana approach. Santana studied the girl now that she was closer. Quinn looked like she was only about a year or so younger than Santana herself; or maybe even the same age. Santana was notorious for getting smashed at parties, and hooking up with, well, everyone, but Quinn didn't attend the same type of parties that she did, and so she obviously didn't know her, or what Santana was like._

_Santana guessed that Quinn and the other two girls that had been there all went to the same public school in town. She sniffed at the thought and held her nose slightly higher in the air. Smashed though she was, Quinn noticed, and she snorted._

_"You're Santana, right?"_

_"Yeah," Santana responded. "Did Alexandro tell you?"_

_"No. I used to go to your fancy pants private school. I remember you," Quinn let out a giant yawn. Santana blushed slightly. Maybe Quinn could read her mind._

_"Then my parents divorced and they halved their money, and you know how adults can be with money. They didn't give two shits about me or my sister any more. They kept it all to themselves and sent me to some public school which seemed like crap after attending Avalona."_

_Santana didn't know what to say. She'd been at Avalona Academy since Pre-K, and she'd never known anyone named Quinn. She had known everyone in her year level and most of the people at the school in general. Maybe Quinn had left really early. She certainly didn't recognise her, Quinn had a face that would be hard to forget. Santana didn't want to say out loud that she didn't remember her at all._

_Quinn continued to ramble on after that, and Santana assumed that it didn't matter what she said because Quinn was still very much drunk, if the alcohol on Quinn's breath didn't give it away. "I don't remember you," Santana cut her off, picking up the water off the couch. She offered it to Quinn, who shook her head no, and Santana placed it on the floor instead of back on the arm rest. She didn't want her brother getting into too much trouble for his little fun night._

_"You wouldn't" Quinn scoffed. "I was fat and ugly and.."_

_Quinn continued to ramble on, and Santana decided not to take much notice. She found it hard to believe Quinn used to be ugly. Quinn looked perfect even in her disheveled, drunk state. She had perfect eyes, a perfect nose, perfect hair, a perfect figure, a perfect face.._

_"I'm cold," Quinn's voice came out unusually loud this time and it snapped Santana out of her slightly jealous daze._  
_"I'll find you a blanket," Santana said, her eyes grazing over Quinn's outfit. It consisted of white mini-shorts, and a black tank top so tight, it showed off everything._

_"Thank you," Quinn quietened down. "Hope you don't mind I'm here. I'm waiting for my older sister to pick me up. She's always so frickin' late."_

_Santana smiled politely and disappeared back upstairs. She walked towards the spare guest rooms but decided that she would get in trouble for pulling any of the doonas off the beds since her mother had just changed them all. She walked back and considered giving her own doona to Quinn, but she wanted to go to sleep soon and Quinn could be here for god-knows-how long. _

_She walked to the storage room and tried searching for her sleeping bag, but then Santana remembered that it was in her brother's room. She had slept on the floor of his room that night that she had snuck out with Tina to watch that horror movie that she hadn't been allowed to see. Her brother had felt sorry for her and had allowed her to sleep on his floor just in case the zombies broke into her room while she was sleeping alone._

_She paused outside her brother's room. It was quiet. Perhaps he'd gone to sleep. She knocked gently but there was no response. She turned the knob, and since the door wasn't locked, it opened easily. She avoided looking at her brother's bed, he was probably passed out on it, dead to the world, and instead walked over to his closet and opened it, dragging out her satiny pink sleeping bag that her brother had nicely folded away at the bottom of his closet so that their parents wouldn't see it._

_"Santana? What the fuck are you doing in here?"_

_Santana swung around. Alexandro stood in his doorway. She opened her mouth to defend herself, but her eyes drifted to the bed, noticing the outline of a person. Her gaze darted back to her brother. If he was there, who was in his bed?_

_"I was just getting my sleeping bag for Quinn. She's cold," she said lamely._

_"Quinn's sister just picked her up," Alexandro was looking at her suspiciously, like she had just committed a crime. "Aren't you meant to be studying?"_

_"I was," she said defensively. "I just saw Quinn and.."_

_"Don't get your knickers in a knot," her brother snickered. "Quinn's fine. You don't need to worry about her. Do you guys know each other?"_

_"No.." Santana trailed off, her gaze switching back to her brother's bed. Her brother met her gaze, and in the dim light, he followed it to the shape on his bed that was obviously not him._

_"She crashed there," he explained. "She was really drunk and I don't want her to walk home alone. I don't know where she lives either and I'm not in any state to drive," he slurred his words, which confirmed what he said._

_"Oh," Santana said, feeling relieved though she didn't know why. "What's mom going to say when she comes home?"_

_"She'll probably be awake by then, or maybe I'll carry her home or something. Stress less, little sis. She's fine. Can I crash in your room, since she's in mine?"_

_Santana's entire body relaxed; she didn't know how much she had tensed up. "Yes, of course."_

* * *

She walked up the stairs until suddenly a loud banging sounded from the front of the house. She turned around.  
Was it possibly..?

"Santana! Open up!" a familiar voice that despite all the circumstances warmed Santana's heart. She bolted down back to the front door so loud and so fast that Shadow lifted his head in curiosity.

"Alexandro!" she rushed straight into the arms of her older brother. The two of them looked mostly alike, though Alexandro's face shape was narrower, like their father's and his eyes were more slanted, also like their father's. He wrapped his long, muscly arms around his tiny sister and squeezed her. "It's so good to see you."

"It is," Santana agreed. She pulled back from the hug to take in her brother's face. She grinned. "Are you out for good now?"

"Santana, that is inconsiderate," their father scolded from behind Alexandro. He hung his coat up and walked past them.

"I'm not," Alexandro sighed. "They say they can't hold me in that horrid place because there's no evidence, which, duh, but I'm still not off the hook. Brant's working on that though."

"You shouldn't treat this so lightly," their father scolded from the exit of the foyer. Alexandro shrugged at his little sister but pulled her in for another hug. "It really is good to see you," he whispered. "Prison is fucking terrible. Shit food, shit people. So many people there harassed me. It sure makes a person glad for their real home, even if you're in it," he added teasingly. Santana shot him a faux scowl, but she smiled again instantly, glad to have her brother safe and sound at home.

"Glad to see you're dressed for once, Santana," their mother chimed in to their conversation.

"You look so lady-like and proper," Alexandro teased as their mother wrapped her arm around her son's waist and guided him away from her daughter.  
"The people should be here soon to set up."

"You weren't actually serious about the party?" Alexandro suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. His face, which had been warm and relieved a second ago, now looked fearful. "Who's going to come?"

Santana's mother looked annoyed. "Oh hush, Alexandro. All your friends will be here to support you. I've hired security guards to sort through the riff-raff and make sure that nobody is outside doing their silly little mob thing."

"Have people been harassing the house? You?" Alexandro turned to fixate his gaze on Santana, and Santana sighed, knowing their little happy reunion was over and a shit-storm was about to start.

Santana opened her mouth but her mother shot her a look which clearly said that if Santana told him the truth, she would have no problem getting rid of her blood relation. "No," she lied. Alexandro looked at her doubtfully but their mother whisked herself into the kitchen after their father, ready to prepare for all the festivities that would happen in a few hours.

"I'm really glad you're home," Santana whispered as she followed Alexandro up the stairs. She offered to take his luggage but he told her she was being silly. They stopped outside his room. The door was covered in yellow tape. Nobody except the detectives and the police were allowed inside it. They said it was a crime scene now. Alexandro sighed and Santana's heart sank. She wished she could do something for him, but there was nothing that she could.

All she could do now was stand by him and be supportive, like a good, loving little sister.

He walked to the nearest guest room and sat on the bed inside. He left the door open and Santana followed him in.

"Are you going to win the case?"

Alexandro smiled. "Good to know you're still as blunt as ever. And I certainly hope so. Brant is great, he's a great laywer. And they have no proof..that I did..that. So yeah." His smile faded as he remembered why he had to sleep in the guest room. "I hope they can move my Playstation in here."

Santana knew he said that to lighten the mood but she couldn't smile. "Yeah," she said softly.

They were quiet for awhile until Santana spoke. "Do you remember the last time we were in Spain?"

Alexandro looked up at her, surprise covering his face. "You mean when you wanted to ride the motorbike but you fell off and cried because you scraped your knee?"

Santana scowled. "No. The dog, remember? The rabid dog?"

Alexandro nodded. "Yeah of course I remember. Just one of the many times in which you endangered our lives."

"I'm going to protect you like you protected me," Santana said, her gaze hard. Alexandro's shoulders drooped and he suddenly looked half his size, which was very unlike Santana's brother. He was normally so tall and strong and he normally did all the protecting. But as he sat on the bed, sinking slowly into it, he looked weak and miserable, which just sparked Santana's anger more.

"You don't have to do that," he said softly. "You're my baby sister. I don't want you to get caught in the crossfire more than you already have, Santana. And I mean it."

Santana remained unconvinced. "But you didn't do it, so any help you get now will make it better, right?"

Alexandro didn't respond. "Yeah, I guess. I'm tired. Can you let me rest up before the party?"

"Yeah," Santana said, her eyes lowering.

"Shut the door on your way out."

"Okay."

* * *

The party was, as Santana's mother would say, going successfully. People that Santana didn't even know gathered around the tables which were filled to the brim with different food and drinks. They all chattered mindlessly amongst themselves. It was giving Santana a mild migraine.

She didn't even know where Alexandro was. Was he even still here? She had tried desperately to convince her father that she didn't need to be there, but he had all but locked her outside in an attempt to make her stay.

She did, however, manage to grab a large bottle of Vodka. It had been sitting on a table somewhere and Santana had assumed it had been a gift. Well, they were going to need it. Being drunk constantly was probably the only way to escape this shitstorm of a situation.

She walked down to the river which ran by the back of her house. Her father hadn't wanted to buy the estate because of it, but Santana and Alexandro had begged and begged because it saved them from building a swimming pool. They had ended up building a swimming pool anyway, but both the Lopez children preferred the cool lake, where they had made rafts and stories about being lost on an island and they had had so many adventures on it that Santana couldn't imagine her childhood without it.

A small wooden bench sat there. Santana's abuela had bought it for them. It was cold to the touch in this warm summer's night and Santana shuddered slightly, before she tipped her head back and began to glug the vodka, ignoring the sharp pain it brought on her throat.

When she eventually stopped, she felt the tears run down her eyes. She didn't know whether it was because of this stupid party and the situation she was in, or whether it was from the alcohol which burned her throat to the point where Santana wondered if she'd ever be able to swallow properly again.

"You shouldn't drink it like that, you know. You need salt and a lemon."

"Fuck off," the voice was somewhat familiar. Maybe it was like a sixth cousin or something. Whoever it was, they could go back to where they were before and leave her the fuck alone.

"That's a rude thing to say to a guest." The voice sounded mildly surprised, but moreover amused. Santana had no time for whoever it was.

"I don't care." Santana's life was in ruins. She didn't want to talk to whoever it was about how shitty her life was, or how they 'sympathised' with her situation. Nobody knew how she felt, how it felt to have a siblings life ruined because of someone who had once been a stranger. It hurt Santana so much not because of how it affected her, but because she couldn't do anything to save him.

All that could save him now was time, and perhaps a good lawyer.

The person sat by next to her and tried to grab the bottle off Santana. Santana yanked it away. "I thought I told you to fuck off."

"I thought I told you that that was rude."

The voice was mocking her. She wanted to look up at them and hit them, but the smooth ripples in the water had fixated her attention on them and nothing else.

"It's a beautiful river," the voice was suddenly gentle. Santana could feel their thigh pressed tightly against hers and she shuddered. It was a clear invasion of personal space, but nobody had been close to Santana in ages, and the close proximity of another human being felt strange.

"It is," Santana agreed, relaxing her grip slightly. "It's my favourite thing about my house."

"Out of everything here? Even all the fancy cars and your giant pillars?"

"Yeah."

They were quiet for awhile and Santana knew deep down who it was. She looked to her side to confirm it, and yes, she was right.

"You never did tell me your name," Santana spoke in her normal tone. The blonde had blue eyes, almost the same colour as what the river used to be before they stopped taking care of it. They twinkled in the moonlight.

"My name is Brittany," she said, placing her palms in front of her and then putting them back on the bench. A few of Brittany's fingers lay gently over Santana's own hand, and Santana didn't have the energy to pull away. She wondered why. She had been so full before. Full of rage, intolerance, alcohol.

Now everything seemed peaceful, and the two girls gazed at nothing but the reflection of the moonlight on the river's edge.


	3. what desire will make foolish people do

Brittany stood outside the large metal gates. Unlike her previous venture here before, they were wide open. Banners and confetti surrounded all the cars and lampposts that surrounded the property. It looked like they were celebrating somebody's sixteenth or twenty-first, not celebrating a possible sex offender getting out of jail.

It made Brittany furious.

To fuel to Brittany's anger, she looked up only to notice the biggest banner of them all hanging from each end of a pillar in front of the large front doors. It said 'Welcome Home Alexandro' in big, artistic letters. Did they really think he would be home for good?

Not on Brittany's watch.

She walked into the party as calmly as she could, looking around as she did so and observing her surroundings. The entire green lawn that stretched out from the expanse of the property was covered in small round tables that people gathered around holding cocktails and chattering amongst themselves.

She was welcomed by a lady on her left, but she was sure that it wasn't Alexandro's mother so she merely gave her a polite smile and sauntered on. She was wearing her most decent outfit; just a tight black mini-skirt that showed off one of her greatest assets; her legs, and a pale yellow tank top that was tucked into it. Most of the people here were dressed rather formal, but she saw a few teenagers with outfits similar to hers. She hoped she wouldn't stand out.

Brittany was pretty sure she couldn't be more pissed off than she was now, but looking at all of these people, _enjoying _themselves over the release of Alexandro, while her sister was at home too scared to even leave the house, well, Brittany wondered if the death punishment was still around, because she was sure she may be sentenced to it at the end of the night.

She glanced around, she didn't recognise anyone. A few ladies murmured their welcomes to her which weirded Brittany out since she didn't even know any of them. She suddenly began to feel very lost in this crowd of people. Would she ever find Alexandro in this crowd?

Brittany looked up. The moonlight suddenly reflected off something, leaving a glistening trail near the end of the estate. When Brittany went closer to look, she realised that the property had its own private river. It ran from one gate to the other, and continued on after that, though there was no way to follow it down to its entirety since the gates even ran through the waterbank. She walked closer, admiring its beauty.

She passed a large swimming pool where girls in bikinis lounged around and boys played water volleyball near them. She briefly remembered what Felicity had been wearing the night she had been raped. Sure, she'd looked a little provocative, with her tight denim skirt, but look at these girls, lying on the ground like pieces of meat. None of them deserved to be raped because of their little clothing, and neither did Felicity.

Brittany clenched her fists into tight little balls, though as she grew closer to the river, and consequently also to the figure sitting upright on the bench, she felt herself relax. She let the noise of the rush of the river cover her hearing so she didn't have to listen to the mindless chatter of the socialites and complete idiots that celebrated Alexandro's release here tonight.

She looked at the figure on the bench and her heart skipped a beat when she realised it was Santana. She still wore the dress from before, the white one with little pleats all over it. Someone had inked pale yellow, blue and black flowers over it, and it reached down to her knees, kind of making it look like she was a five year old. To add to it, someone had pulled her long dark hair into a tight bun on the top of her head, and then tied a dark blue ribbon onto it.

The only thing preventing Brittany from thinking that the girl in front of her was a five year old, was the bottle of vodka that Santana gripped tightly in one hand. She then watched as Santana opened the bottle and began to choke it down. Brittany couldn't help cringing, imagining the burning sensation that Santana was putting her upper body through.

"You shouldn't drink it like that, you know. You need salt and a lemon."

The words just came out of her mouth. She hadn't meant to let Santana know that she was standing behind her. Was that creepy? But Santana didn't stir. She didn't flinch, or move at all. She didn't even turn around to see who she was speaking too. All that left her lips was a mere, "Fuck off."

"That's a rude thing to say to a guest," Brittany responded, daring herself to move a step closer. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to accomplish here, but she knew there was something.

"I don't care."

Brittany wished she would turn around. She didn't even know why. But Santana looked like she had no intention of ever turning around. She was staring into the flowing river as if she wished it would take her with it to wherever it ended, if it did. Brittany sucked in her breath and she sat down next to her, still, Santana didn't look at her.

She decided to get Santana's attention another way. She used her closest hand to try and grab the bottle of vodka from Santana's tight grip. Well hey, it's not like she couldn't use a shot. Her life was probably as bad as Santana's right now.

Actually, it was a lot worse.

Santana didn't break eye contact with the water, though she said with a hard edge to her voice, "I thought I told you to fuck off."

"I thought I told you that was rude." Brittany wondered if Santana recognised her voice from earlier.

"It's a beautiful river," she spoke again. Her voice was more gentle now, not teasing. She couldn't get through Santana with teasing, it seemed. Wait, why was she bothering with Santana? It was Alexandro that she had come here to destroy.

_Maybe you can get information off her, _the tiniest voice in her head said. It pushed away another voice that was saying something else. It was like the devil and an angel were sitting on each of her shoulders, waging their own not-so-silent war with each other over Brittany's actions.

"It is," Santana's grip on the vodka loosened, but Brittany didn't want any anymore. She wanted to listen to Santana's voice more.

To get more information about her brother, of course.

"It's my favourite thing about the house."

That surprised Brittany. "Out of everything here?" the surprise was obvious in her voice, but now she was genuinely curious. "Even all the fancy cars and your giant pillars?"

"Yeah." Santana's voice didn't hold any emotion.

There was a silence that covered them, but when it was lifted, Santana finally turned around to look at Brittany. They were sitting so close that Brittany could feel Santana's bare skin against her own. Her dress had moved up, maybe due to the wind, and it rubbed against Brittany's leg. She swallowed loudly. When had that happened?

She had no time to mull it over because Santana's gaze suddenly met her own. "You never did tell me your name."

Santana was looking at Brittany as if she could see right through her. As if she knew that she had come to the party tonight to exact revenge on her brother. As if she knew that Felicity Pierce was her younger sister and it was her duty as her older sister to make sure her sister's life was fulfilling, and that she wasn't stuck inside the house for months on end because of this tragedy.

And if she told Santana her real name, Santana would..

What would Santana do? Scream like a little girl? Call people to get her off the property? Call the police for trespassing?

There was something written on Santana's face that told Brittany that she wouldn't.

"My name is Brittany," Brittany couldn't help smirking. She didn't know where this newfound courage came from. She had felt worry just a minute ago, but the longer she stared at Santana, the more courage she began to build up. She didn't know why, but she felt like she had some kind of hold over this girl.

Santana could call whoever she wanted, it wouldn't change the fact that Brittany suddenly felt superior, not particularly in accordance to Santana, but to all the people here. She knew Felicity, and she knew her sister wasn't lying. She knew the truth, and that gave her power.

"Huh," was Santana's response. The name sounded oddly familiar but Brittany was such a common name. Unlike 'Santana.' She probably knew at least three from school. Brittany's, that was.

Brittany glanced at her. She opened her mouth to ask if she knew where her brother was, because she wanted to say hi and all that, when something else came out instead.

"Your dress matches your really pretty eyes."

The statement caught Santana off guard. One minute they were being kind of snarky to each other, and then the next they were being somewhat docile. Where had this compliment come from?

"Um," she paused and Brittany wondered if saying that had been weird, though she noticed the slightest pink blush appear on Santana's tan complexion. She mentally smacked herself in the face. Of course it was weird. She relaxed when Santana burst out into laughter and then looked at her quizzically. "My dress doesn't match my eyes at all, silly."

Brittany felt her heart skip a beat for the second time that night when Santana called her 'silly'. It was like a pet name.  
Wait, she had other things to focus on. She shook her head but she still came into contact with Santana's large brown eyes and she swallowed.

"You're blushing," it came out just like the compliment had. It was true though, Santana's cheeks were getting redder. Brittany wondered why. Santana was obviously beautiful. She probably got compliments the way that Brittany got 'F's' on her tests. Which was all the time. Santana didn't respond and Brittany knew she should stop talking, but she couldn't.

"You have a really nice tan. Yeah, a nice tan. Like, in your name. San'tan'a, it's like your parents knew how nice your skin would be when they named you."

What the fuck was she saying? She knew she should stop talking but her mouth couldn't stop moving. She shouldn't have even made the first comment at all. Santana's dress didn't match her eyes at all. Her dress was way too bright to even bring out her brown irises. It had been a stupid comment. Brittany didn't know why she had started digging this hole. Sometimes her mouth ran faster than her brain.

Santana burst out laughing again, even louder than the first time that she had. It made Brittany laugh too, not because of her irresponsible comment, but because of Santana's laugh. Her fingers brushed against Santana's lightly and Brittany wondered if she would be able to flirt with Santana freely if she was a guy.

She'd flirt with her to get attention. She'd make Santana fall in love with her and then she would crush her when she'd got the information that she needed. She would be ruthless and Alexandro would see his younger sister heartbroken, and then he'd know some of what she felt. That would be her revenge. She didn't need physical violence, Brittany was never one for that anyway.

But she wasn't a guy, and Santana seemed to be as straight as a metal pole. Brittany was pretty sure she was straight too, anyway. She'd had sex with Puck but she'd never felt anything. She thought sex was meant to be enjoyable, but it wasn't. Actually it was boring and during the process she felt like she was doing a chore. She'd had it a couple times after that too see if it got any better after your first time, or if it was better with different guys, but it never was.

She briefly wondered how many guys Santana had done done. She was dressed up all nicely but Brittany's thoughts were running wild. Surely if your parents tried to portray you as the sweet, innocent virgin then you had to be the complete opposite? Brittany may have failed her recent exams, but she was observant, even if she wasn't book smart.

"You look deep in thought," Santana was looking at her again. Brittany blushed slightly.

"Yeah," she responded. It's not like she could tell Santana that she was thinking about her sex life, anyway.

Santana tilted her head curiously. "So you came to see my brother at his party, yet you're sitting here with me, why?"

Brittany sensed a little snark woven into Santana's question, so she responded with an equal amount.

"Because you look like a loner sitting here by yourself. Do you have any friends?"

"Yes," Santana said a little too quickly and a little too defensively. Well, she used too have friends anyway, before this dumb ordeal. But she wasn't prepared to tell Brittany that.

"It's my brother's party, not mine."

"Are they all your relatives, then? Or his friends, too?"

Santana's eyes narrowed slightly. "Shouldn't you know his friends?"

Shit. Brittany hadn't thought that question through. She'd just wanted to know if people that weren't related to the Lopez's were dumb enough to fall for Alexandro's innocent act.

"We're not close. We just had a couple of classes together. A few years ago, actually."

"So you came to snoop." It wasn't a question and Brittany knew it. Santana's tone had hardened and Brittany felt the same feeling go through her like when she was in detention and a teacher was berating her for failing her exams. It wasn't Brittany's fault she couldn't really remember anything. She learnt differently and they couldn't understand that.

"No," Brittany didn't know why she bothered to defend herself, but Santana was giving her such a penetrating glare that Brittany was sure if she didn't deny it, Santana would drown her in the pretty river there and then.

Just then, a voice that sounded completely normal and rather cheerful interrupted them, and chilled Brittany to the bone.

"Santana, why are you sitting down here? Come back up to the party!"

Both girls turned around. Brittany had never seen him before in real life but just by taking in his appearance, she knew who he was. He was about six foot, maybe taller, he was taller than Brittany. Brittany had for some reason just assumed she would be taller than Alexandro, but she had been wrong, so wrong.

He didn't have Santana's warm brown eyes, and although his were brown as well, they were a lot darker, almost black, and almost hard-looking. Brittany was sure if she reached out to touch them, they would feel like rock.

He was slightly paler than his sister too. Maybe from all that time he had spent in a sunless jail. Brittany clenched and unclenched her fist. He would be back there soon. She just had to pump Santana for information about that night. Get her to reveal the truth about what she was sure Santana had really witnessed. She just needed proof to put this bastard behind bars forever.

"I can't be fucked. Aunty Petra keeps touching me and I hate her."

Alexandro laughed and Brittany resisted the urge to kick him in his groin. "She just hasn't seen you since you were small, she's just excited."

"It doesn't mean that she wants to be touched!"

Brittany knew she should have just kept her mouth shut during this entire confrontation, but she said it and she couldn't take it back. She could feel Santana's gaze burning through her side, and Alexandro's cheerful face quickly narrowed into a sneer.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Brittany swallowed loudly. There was no way she could do anything to Alexandro with Santana right here. Actually, looking at him, she wasn't sure she could do anything to him regardless of whether Santana was here or night.

It went against both the devil and the angel in her body, but she had to amend her mistake.

"I just know what it's like to have annoying relatives," she said simply, shrugging it off as if she was none the wiser. Santana's eyes never left Brittany's side. She didn't buy it one bit.

But Alexandro relaxed slightly and he forced a smile. "Sorry, I'm a little touchy."

"That's okay," Brittany said. Her lying was terrible. She should really practise it more. She wasn't sure either of them were fooled.

"I'm Alexandro, by the way," he peered at her curiously. "Who are you? I've never seen you before, and trust me, I remember _everyone."_

Well, fuck.

"She's my friend," a voice came from Brittany's right and she turned and stared at Santana in surprise. Santana and Alexandro maintained eye contact and Alexandro shrugged. "That's cool." He turned back to Brittany. "Nice to meet you," he paused and then turned back to his sister. "I'm glad your friends are..cool."

Santana nodded, her lips settling into a firm line. Her brother waved one last time and Brittany smelt the alcohol coming from his breath as he bid them goodbye.

They watched him disappear from sight and Brittany knew she was in for it.

"So who are you then? Not a serial killer or anything, right?"

It was a dumb question. Well, at least the second one was, so Brittany laughed somewhat sarcastically.

"You got me, I'm a serial killer. I plan to kill everyone here."

Well, it wasn't so far off from the truth.

Santana didn't crack a smile even though she was the one who asked the question.

"So who are you?" she repeated.

"I told you my name was Brittany."

"Well, Brittany," the name rolled off Santana's tongue and it made Brittany's insides clench. "Brittany from where?"

"Lima. I live in Lima too."

"Do you really?"

"Yes, I haven't lied about anything."

"Except knowing my brother."

"Except that," Brittany nodded her head slightly. "I guess I just wanted to see what was going on."

"You're lying. You look away slightly to the left when you lie."

Brittany frowned, and caught Santana's gaze. "What?"

"I said, you look away slightly to the left when you lie."

Brittany thought that she was the only one who was able to tell when somebody was lying. How could Santana as well? Brittany had lied so many times in front of the tiny mirror in their bathroom, but she had never noticed herself look away at all when she lied. She had thought she was foolproof. Perhaps Santana was better at her than observing people?

That seemed strange, and also unlikely. Maybe Santana was bluffing.

"Now you're lying."

"I'm not," Brittany liked Santana's voice. It was like Lord Tubbington's tongue. Rough when he licked her, but soothing at the same time. She hoped Megan had remembered to give him the scraps when they had washed up after dinner.

"You are."

"Not," Santana said, though she stood up. Brittany didn't know why she wanted Santana to offer her her hand to help her stand up, but the angel inside of her was wishing for it, and she could feel it. Santana brushed down her dress instead. It was slightly dirty now. She shouldn't have put white clothing on a dirty bench.

"I'm going back to the party. To my brother whom you don't know, Brittany from Lima," she said the last parts sarcastically and Brittany flinched. Santana looked at her for a moment longer before she walked back to the party. Brittany didn't know why, but she felt her body spring up. "Wait!"

"What?" Santana didn't turn around, but she stopped walking.

"Can I get your number?"

An almost cruel laugh came from Santana's lips. "Why would you want my number?"

Brittany couldn't say what the devil was telling her. That she needed all the information about that night that she could possibly get so that her sister would get the justice that she deserved. And Santana was the only person in the world who knew what could set her sister free.

And she couldn't tell her what the angel was telling her either. That she wanted to get to know her for _her. _Because Santana piqued her curiosity in every single way possible and Brittany didn't know why.

"I'd like to buy you another bottle of vodka."

Brittany couldn't see but a small smile played on Santana's lips in the moonlight.

"This vodka's expensive."

Brittany wondered if she knew about how poor she was. For all Santana knew, she could live right next door to her in a fancy mansion, but it didn't irritate Brittany the way it would if Puck for example had said it. Santana didn't know anything about her, except her name.

"I can afford it," she said it confidently, with poise reflected in her manner, the way she had seen those other girls talking by the pool.

"If you want me, you know where I live." Was all Santana responded with as she sauntered off back to the party.

Brittany's heart thudded. Did that mean Santana wanted her to come back to the house at a later date? To go back to this house again? To spend time together?

Maybe she was overthinking things, but it sure seemed like she did.

* * *

When she returned home that night, she knew something was wrong. Megan was curled up onto the floor next to Lord Tubbington, who somehow still managed to maintain his obese weight even though they could barely afford to feed him, and Felicity had her head in her lap and she was shaking. Their mother had her arm around her and when Brittany walked into the room, she snapped.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Language," Brittany said automatically.

"Hell isn't a bad word, Brittany. But that's beside the point. Where have you been?"

"Out," Brittany said. She should have just said work, but she knew that the dance studio sometimes called her house and her mom would definitely ask them if Brittany had actually been at work.

"With a boy?" her mother began to hiss and Brittany frowned at her. "No, of course not. I just went to get some fresh air."

Her mother seemed okay with this answer because her mini-interrogation stopped.

"The lawyer came by today. Felicity's one."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Did you want to tell her, sweetheart?" their mother nudged Felicity out of her comatose position and she sat up reluctantly. Dried tears stained her face and Brittany wanted to reach out and hug her but she couldn't.

Felicity opened her mouth and tried to speak but she couldn't. Brittany didn't know why their mother had asked Felicity to speak. Sometimes it was just better to let her be.

"He's still pleading innocent," their mother supplied helpfully once she realised that Felicity couldn't speak. "Alexandro is still pleading innocent."

Brittany cocked her head to the left slightly. She knew that he was insistent on pleading innocent, but what had changed this time?

"But he's always ple-"

"But this one is the final court case! If he pleads innocent and I have no proof, then that's it!" Felicity burst out. She leapt off the couch and ran down the hall. Megan got up to run after her but Brittany caught her in time. "No, leave her alone," she told her youngest sister firmly as she watched Felicity disappear behind the thin wall.

She looked at her mother. "What were you planning on doing?" She bit back the urge to say, 'it's your daughter.'

Her mother took one long look at her and sighed. Her breath smelt the same of what she smelt on Alexandro back at the party and it irritated Brittany to no end. If alcohol had never been invented, then their mother would have never have been an alcoholic. Their father wouldn't have left them. Felicity wouldn't have been so intoxicated to stop whatever had happened that night.

"There's nothing I can do."

Brittany wanted to be mad. To yell or hit her mother. But she knew she was right. She was sure she loved Felicity more than their mother did but no amount of love could save her from the injustice that was about to be served to her. There was nothing anybody could do.

Without proof, at least.

"I'm going for another walk," Brittany said tiredly and this time, their mother didn't question her. Instead, she took Megan's hands and began to sing her a song. Brittany watched them for awhile, wondering when they had last interacted. She walked down to her room and found a few notes that she had stashed away for 'rainy days.' She counted them. She was sure she had enough.

She walked out the front door and nodded to their elderly neighbour with his small dog. He nodded back and Brittany slung her nimble hands in her pocket as she walked to the liquor store.

She dumped the vodka on the counter. She was sure it was the same one. She felt something inside of her rip as she handed over her last few precious notes. It may seem silly on the surface, to spend all of her money on one bottle of alcohol. But she needed to see Santana. She needed that proof.

As soon as possible. She needed to save her sister, and saving Felicity meant pushing away any other small, though hidden, agendas that the angel inside of her was egging on.


	4. never dreamed i'd meet somebody like you

"Santana, Santana, wake up!"

Santana's eyes fluttered open, only to stare right into the dark brown eyes of her brother. He was sitting on the edge of her bed, waving his left hand wildly in front of her face. "Ugh," she groaned as the sunlight suddenly hit her irises. Her hands found one of the plaid-covered cushions that rested against her wall and she tossed one at Alexandro.

"Fuck off, it's too early in the morning."

"Not early enough," her brother teased. Santana squinted at his outline, but she felt her body soften as she looked at his face. He looked so excited for something; so youthful, so full of hope. Just like he had been once.

"So why are you polluting my bedroom space this fine morning?" Santana asked sarcastically, sitting up and resting against the bed's leather backboard.

"The first of three court hearings is tomorrow," Alexandro said. He held up the hand that had been waving in front of Santana's face earlier; the one she had considered sawing off and held three fingers erect. He wiggled the first finger before he settled his hand into a fist.

"Why is that exciting?" Another rush of sympathy flowed through Santana. She wished her older brother didn't have to do this. Alexandro rocked back and forth on her bed.

"Because, _Santana, _it means that when this one is down, then the second, then the third, it means I'll be free to go back to college. To go to the movies when I want. I don't have to be confined in this house with you," he joked, throwing her cushion back at her.

Santana smiled at the thought of all of this being over. Her brother would win the court case, with the help of Brant and her testimony, and she would get her friends back. She would get her old life back. The prospect almost seemed too good to be true.

"That's great," she said softly and her brother smiled at her, warming her heart.

"So who was that girl you were sitting with yesterday? A friend from school? She's hot, reckon you can hook me up with her number once all this is over?"

Santana rolled her eyes. "Oh, _please, _Brittany is way too good for you." The words came from her mouth before she was able to stop them. Saying Brittany's name and seeing her face in her mind as she did so weirded her out. She bit her lip. She didn't even know the girl, yet she had felt so defensive when she thought of her brother and Brittany together.

Alexandro mimicked her eye rolling. "Anyway, you better get dressed and come down to breakfast or mother will crack the shits."

"I'll crack the shits if you don't get the hell out of my room right this instant."

Alexandro rolled his eyes again but he stood up off her bed. "Alright, alright, I'm going."

"Wait."

Alexandro stopped just in front of her door and looked at her enquiringly. "What?"

"Does that mean I have to speak in court?" Santana said, panic rushing through her. "I don't think I can."

Alexandro knitted his eyebrows together in confusion. "Why not?"

"I," Santana paused. She didn't know why she was so scared. She was one of the most confident girls that anyone would ever come across, but the idea of standing up in front of a court full of judges and lawyers..and people from town freaked her out. "Just don't want too."

Annoyance flashed across her brother's face, but his facial features eventually softened. "I get it. It's gotta be scary, I understand, San. But if you don't do it, then they might side with the liar, and I won't get out."

'The liar.' It seemed weird to label her that. Santana would have been able to do it if she had never seen Felicity's face, but she had, and although she seemed a little on the devious side, labelling her 'the liar' seemed a little strange, and that was saying something, since Santana had a nice pet name for every idiot that she had ever come across.

But as she looked up at her brother; she knew he wasn't lying either. She trusted him the most out of everyone on this planet. He had basically raised her. He had taught her to catch bugs in the playground, he had taught her how to roller-skate and how to ice-skate. He let her hang around his friends when they were both younger when Santana had been too shy to make any of her own.

He was the reason why Santana now stood so proud and so tall today. She quickly adopted his way of thinking, his fast tongue and his sarcastic tone. He was her older brother, and she had to stand by him.

Didn't she?

Tomorrow came all too soon. There was an outfit laid out on Santana's bed, and she was standing in front of it, looking down at it. Her mother must have put it there while she had been out walking Shadow, cause it sure as hell hadn't been there that morning.

It was a simple white blouse, pulled tight at the top with a silk ribbon. A black blazer hung over it, perfectly pressed and absolutely spotless, as well as a matching knee-length tight skirt made of the same material. The tiny black kitten heels were the only thing that Santana would have considered wearing out normally and she grudgingly pulled each article of clothing over her head, all the while staring at the clock.

It was twelve midday. The court hearing started at two in the afternoon. Her parents had presumably already left with Alexandro and Brant, and Santana was in the mansion by herself, except for Shadow, who, after his walk, had resigned himself back to his bed in his corner.

Once Santana was dressed, she walked into the bathroom and pulled her hair up into a bun, just like her mother had instructed the day prior. She was in the middle of applying her lipstick when the 'neee-ooo-neee-ooo' of the doorbell suddenly rang.

"Fucking people can't remember their keys," she muttered. Nobody else would have been able to have gotten pass the gate unless they had the passcode. Their mother had specifically instructed Santana to make sure it was locked when she had gotten back, just in case those idiots decided to protest outside her house again.

Like, what were they even trying to achieve? Did they think by creating a commotion in their upper-class neighbourhood, her brother would feel sorry for Felicity and sacrifice himself for her to get, what? What did that girl even hope to gain by this? She had nothing to lose. Her brother had everything. It was selfish of her for even taking this to court, wasn't it?

She thudded down the stairs and slowly made her way to her front door. Make them wait. It was probably her mother, and she had forgotten her Chanel lipstick or something trivial and stupid like that. Well she could wait. It wouldn't hurt her to have her lips not so _blood red _for a few minutes.

Eventually she opened the door and stared in surprise at the person who stood in front of her, who was definitely not her mom. She was so surprised she even let out a little gasp.

"What the hells are you doing here?"

It was Brittany who stood on her front porch. She was dressed in white mini-shorts, which, Santana couldn't help looking, that made her legs seem as if they went on for miles. She briefly wondered if Brittany was a model. She had the height, body and face for it after all. She felt slightly envious, but then she remembered the gate.

"How'd you get in here?" she cut off Brittany's reply. A brief flash of uncertainty crossed over Brittany's face as Santana peered next to her, checking if the gates were still locked.

They were.

Brittany squinted uncertainly, and then turned to look at the locked gates. She looked mildly surprised as she turned to look back at Santana, who had crossed her arms. Let's see Brittany try and get out of this one. She smirked.

"I jumped."

It wasn't the answer that Santana was expecting, so she lost the confidence she had gained.

"What?" her stance faltered slightly and she leaned against the doorway for support. "The fuck?"

"You wanted vodka, so I brought vodka."

Brittany glanced slightly to the left before she returned Santana's eye contact. But Santana already knew she was lying. She hadn't wanted vodka. She had merely made the comment because she had no intention of giving Brittany her number. She didn't know the girl, and she knew, just by looking at her, that being 'friends' with Brittany would bring nothing but trouble.

"I have enough vodka here."

Brittany glanced at the ground. She looked almost sad, and Santana suddenly wanted to wrap her arms around her and hug her and tell her it was going to be okay. She didn't really know this girl but she wanted to make sure her life was always happy.

How weird was that?

"But uh, you can come in. I guess."

What was she doing? She had that dumb court hearing soon, and as much as she didn't want to go, she knew she had too. But Brittany's face lit up at the offer and Santana decided that turning up a few minutes late wouldn't fuck anything up. Hell, if she took one of her father's sports cars she'd probably still end up there early, even if Brittany was only here for a few minutes.

"Your house is amazing."

Santana raised an eyebrow as she followed behind her. Anyone impressed by her house was either lying, or they didn't come from this neighbourhood. She drummed her long manicured nails on the kitchen bench as Brittany followed her almost meekly into the kitchen.

"You can put it here," Santana said, patting the bench. To her horror, Brittany jumped up on the counter and sat almost in front of Santana. It reminded Santana of her and this guy once. Except their roles were reversed and she was the one sitting on the counter, her legs wrapped around this guys waist and then...

She shook her head. She didn't want to think of the way she used to be.

"I meant the vodka. Not you." She couldn't even be bothered asking another 'what the fuck' or wondering how Brittany's mind functioned anymore.

Brittany looked at her apologetically and then jumped off the bench, and placed the neatly wrapped vodka on the bench. It was the same one from a few nights prior, and she couldn't help smirking. Brittany tilted her head slightly at the look that came over Santana's face.

"So where do you live?"

"In Lima. I told you that."

"What part?"

Brittany bit her lip as if she knew what Santana was really asking her.

"Lower Lima, actually. We can't all come from Lima Heights."

Santana knew that was a dig at her parents wealth but she ignored it. "My grandparents live in Lima Heights Adjacent."

Brittany bit her lip again, but this time it was because she was holding back a giggle. Santana didn't seem that bad. "How come your grandparents live in a really dodgy part of town and you live here?"

Santana shrugged. "They like the ghetto. The people there are pretty cool, even if it is pretty dangerous. Though you'd probably be able to defend yourself, Lower Lima girl."

Santana wasn't making a jab at Brittany's part of town either and Brittany gave her a hesitant smile, which made Santana's heart skip a beat. Maybe it was because she was meant to be somewhere important, but here she was, doing this weird teasing regime with a girl who had literally gatecrashed her brother's party the night before because she had 'just wanted to know what was going on' and a girl who had jumped her fence just then to deliver a bottle of vodka.

Any normal persons sixth sense would be going crazy, but Santana's Mexican third eye wasn't warning her of any danger, so she decided to relax.

"Since you came here snooping the other night, did you end up finding anything interesting?"

"Some girl named Jacky swallowed an entire frog once by accident."

This time, Santana didn't frown at Brittany's randomness. This time, she allowed herself to laugh a little.

"I see. So it was worth the trip?"

"Definitely." There was a glint in Brittany's eye that drew Santana in. She swallowed, glancing at the time again.

"Not to be rude. Well, actually, you're the one to jump my fence, so forget that, but I have somewhere important to be."

"Where?" Brittany tilted her head slightly to the side again, but not before her eyes darted quickly to the left. Santana picked up on it.

"I'm guessing you know where."

Brittany frowned. "That's not fair. You're just making random guesses as to when I'm lying or not. You can't actually tell."

"I can," Santana smirked. "And you know the best thing about it?"

"Nope?"

"Nobody can tell when I'm lying."

It had meant to come out as a laughing matter. Santana was just meant to portray a smug expression, but once the words had left her mouth, both her and Brittany realised a double meaning to it.

"Aren't you the witness to this case?"

Santana's eyes narrowed. "I'm not lying about my statement."

Brittany let out a long whistle, but she was still frowning. "How do I know you're not lying now?"

Irritation pricked Santana. How dare Brittany question her? "This is a private matter."

Brittany then shrugged as if she hadn't said anything that could possibly offend Santana. "Sorry, it's just there's always two sides to a story."

"I see you've been following this whole matter closely. Why?"

Brittany shut her eyes. "It's just a subject matter that interests me."

"What interests you? The fact that my brothers life is going to be ruined?"

Brittany opened one eye. "No, lying. Lying interests me."

"You want to know which side is lying?" Santana was taken aback. She didn't even have the capacity to be angry at this almost-stranger who had just accused her of lying for her brother. She was interested. Interested in what Brittany was interested in.

And she still didn't know why.

"Yes," she said, stepping slightly to the side. Something behind Santana caught her eye and to Santana's surprise, Brittany clapped her hands together gleefully. "You have a dog!"

"Huh?" Santana turned around only to see Brittany rushing towards Shadow, who was still lying down, though his tail was wagging when he saw her. It sounded silly but she trusted Shadow's doggy instinct. Brittany couldn't be a secret murderer, at least.

"Yeah. This is Shadow," Santana crouched down next to Brittany as she ruffled Shadow's fur. She secretly felt proud. She loved Shadow, but nobody took any interest in him. Her friends had ignored him, probably because they were too scared of his wolf-like features and his enormous size, and her brother disliked dogs altogether. Her parents even had said once that they regretted taking him in although all Shadow did was sleep all day.

"He's beautiful," Brittany said and then turned back to Santana with a beaming smile on her face. "Just like you," she cooed. Santana blinked. Brittany had sounded like she had been talking to Shadow, but why would she say 'He's beautiful, just like you' to the dog twice. She frowned but Brittany had still immersed herself into fondling the big dog, who was loving it.

"So you like animals?"

"Yeah I have a cat. Lord Tubbington."

Santana couldn't help laughing. "Nice name."

"You have a nice laugh," Brittany said. She sounded honest and earnest like a small kid. She stood up and brushed her hands on the back of her shorts.

"Thanks," Santana said uncertainly. She should be used to compliments, with how many she used to get a day, but Brittany's one took her off guard. She still wasn't sure what Brittany had been on about earlier either.

"What's your room like? I bet it's big," Brittany sounded almost envious, and for some reason, Santana wanted her to see it. "It isn't really," she said, walking up the grand staircase. Brittany followed. She wanted to use the rails but she didn't want to dirty Santana's house.

"It's really nice." Brittany spoke in the same earnest tone as she looked around Santana's room. Everyone was always surprised when they saw Santana's room. It was so normal compared to the rest of the house. Brittany couldn't possibly be an exception.

"It's normal," Santana replied, sitting on her bed. Brittany stood unsurely in the doorway but Santana gestured for her to sit next to her on her bed, so Brittany followed suit. The two of them sat side by side like they had a few nights before at the river, and nothing but silence was exchanged between them for a few moments.

Santana didn't know why she felt nervous, but she did.

"So did you lure me into your room to kill me? Are you going to eat me? Cause I saw that on a TV show once and it was pretty scary."

Santana snorted. "You're the one who wanted to see my room." She couldn't look at Brittany. It felt too close, too intimate. She looked straight ahead instead, seeing photos of her and her old friends, photos of her and her brother.

"Did I?" Brittany did the head-tilting thing again. She looked confused, as if she genuinely couldn't remember. Santana shrugged in response, still not sure what she should be doing. What was the protocol for inviting people you had just met into your room?

Actually, Santana knew and it made her feel queasy inside. The word 'easy' sprung to mind. A word that had been used to describe her. For the first time, she actually felt ashamed of it.

"You look sad."

"I'm just thinking."

"Of?"

"Private stuff."

"Can't you tell me? No-one's here to eavesdrop."

Santana laughed. "You don't even know me and you want to know all my private thoughts?" Her voice came out teasing.

"I do know you. I know your name is Santana and that you live in this giant house."

"What's my last name?"

"Lopez." There had been no pause.

"Favourite colour?"

"Red."

Santana gaped at her, and she actually turned around to face her, her mouth open. "How'd you know?"

Brittany shrugged. "Well for one, your walls are painted red, and second most of the stuff in your room is red."

"Fine, I'll give you that one."

"So what are you thinking about?"

"Just of how I used to be."

"Why'd you change?"

"I was forced to change. I guess whatever I am now is better than being a slut."

Brittany's eyes lowered to the ground. Her eyelashes brushed against her skin as she looked back up. Santana wondered if her eyelashes were always that long or if she was using a special mascara or something.

"People call me that. A slut."

"Why?" Santana wondered if Brittany would ever stop surprising her. "You look innocent."

"A lot of uninnocent people look innocent," Brittany said and she looked so sad that Santana couldn't bear to tell her that 'uninnocent' wasn't an actual word. The word she had been looking for was 'guilty.'

"So why are you a slut?" God, why was she asking Brittany these things?

She never would have asked them to her friends before. Maybe that was because she had never really given two shits about her 'friends'. But here was Brittany, and curious about Brittany Santana was, so she asked. Her curiosity was so piqued she wondered if she would ever one day ask Brittany a question and be unsurprised by the answer.

Brittany laughed, as if the answer was obvious. "I've had a lot of sex with different guys, that's all."

"That doesn't make you a slut."

"So why are you a slut?"

"I've also had a lot of sex with different guys."

"I thought you said that doesn't make you a slut."

Santana sucked in her lower lip, but she smiled. "I did, didn't I?"

"Uh-huh. I thought you were supposed to be smart."

"A lot of unsmart people look smart," Santana replied in a sing-song voice and Brittany's smile reached her eyes. Santana swallowed.

"So why have you had sex with a lot of guys?" It was a personal question but suddenly Santana wanted to pour her entire being out to this girl she barely knew. Anyway, what would she possibly do with the information? Laugh at Santana's woes behind her back? She probably didn't even know anyone that Santana knew, so it didn't really matter.

And could Santana's reputation be tarnished even more anyway?

"To be liked, I guess. They say guys only want one thing, right?"

"I don't think that's a right reason. But mine are just as bad."

Santana snorted. "So what are your reasons then?"

"People have always told me that sex was meant to be something really good. Like, it was meant to feel good, and all that stuff. Like you know how it always looks romantic and that in movies? I went out looking for that."

"Did you find it?"

"Well. My first time was pretty bad, but I heard that a lot of peoples first times are. So I tried it with different guys, and they all had the same result."

"Which was?"

Brittany leaned her cheek against her shoulder, away from Santana. "It feels like I've never really had sex before."

Okay, so now Santana was confused. "How does that work?"

"I'm still waiting for it to..feel good. I guess."

"So I guess we're both in the same boat."

Now Brittany raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying you've never had sex like they have in the movies?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Interesting."

"I'm a very interesting person."

"So is my cat."

Santana frowned. "You're comparing me to your cat?"

Brittany lay on Santana's bed so that Santana was hovering slightly over her. It made Santana's cheeks turn ever-so-slightly pink. "Well, you're both pretty."

"Um, thanks?" Santana didn't know how to go about this situation anymore. "You're pretty too?"

Brittany craned her neck to look at her. "Are you asking me or telling me?"

"This feels like we're flirting," Santana suddenly blurted out. Brittany suddenly sat up again, though she was further away from Santana that she had been before. For a moment she thought Brittany was going to call Santana some kind of name, or insult her somehow and then storm from the house, but instead, Brittany looked at her, curiosity glinting in every aspect of her eye.

"Would that be so wrong if we were?"

Santana could feel her heart hammering in her chest. "What's that supposed to mean? We're girls."

"I'm kidding, relax," Brittany leaned back onto the bedsheets, but now Santana felt borderline uncomfortable. She shifted slightly so that she wasn't hovering over Brittany. "Are you always this uptight?"

"No, I used to be great before this whole incident," she blurted out again. Brittany sucked in a deep breath of air, and picked up one of the plush teddy bears at the edge of Santana's bed and began to play with its paws as she spoke.

"Has this really affected you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I just mean that you really don't have any part to play in this. It's between the girl and the boy, your brother I mean."

"What kind of a question is that?"

Brittany sucked in her lip as she turned to look at Santana. "Well, one person is going to win this case. But you won't."

"What? Are you saying my brother won't win? Because he will. He didn't do it. I would know, I was the witness as you pointed out before. And his lawyer will be able to prove it, too."

Brittany's forehead creased. She opened her mouth to say something but she didn't.

"That's not what I meant," her voice was softer this time. "I just meant that either your brother or the girl will win. You're not the party involved. You're in the parties involved, but not the actual party."

It took awhile for Santana's brain to understand. "I guess so."

"Sorry. I keep overstepping my boundaries. It's none of my business."

"I guess so," Santana replied again. "You seem smart for someone from Lower Lima," she said teasingly. She didn't know why her mood kept going up and down with Brittany. It was strange, and new.

Brittany actually beamed. "Wow, thanks," she said as if she had taken it as an actual compliment.

What happened next, Santana wasn't sure she would ever be able to figure out why it did. Maybe it was because Brittany was lying down next to her and Santana hadn't been around any other humans except her family for months on end. Maybe it was because her eyes were confused and she had thought that Brittany had been a hot guy that had stumbled into her room.

Or maybe it was because of other reasons, but whatever those reasons were, they must have been big, because the next thing Santana knew were Brittany's lips on her own. She planted her palms firmly against each side of Brittany's cheeks, pinning the other girl down underneath her.

Brittany resisted at first, as if she was surprised, or maybe she didn't like it, but whatever her reasons for being hesitant were, they obviously weren't long-lasting because suddenly she was nibbling at Santana's lower lip, begging her to open her mouth wider so she could explore all that was Santana. And Santana let her.

She shifted so that she was straddling Brittany's waist. She could feel Brittany squirm underneath her, and suddenly Santana felt on top of the world. On top of Brittany. On top of the world.

What was the difference?

A few minutes passed until Santana gently got off her. Brittany didn't move and Santana held her face in her hands once she realised what had happened.

"You should go," Santana said, stepping off her bed. Her entire demeanour had changed. What had she just done? She just just gotten her mack on with a girl. A girl she barely knew. A girl who somehow knew her favourite colour.

But Brittany didn't move. "I've never done that before."

"What? Made out? Do you just go straight into it?" Santana's voice came out harsh and icy, but Brittany didn't seem all too affected by it.

"I've never made out with a girl," she clarified. She propped herself up on her elbows, and Santana's eyes fell to her chest. She ripped her gaze away, suddenly feeling ashamed, and not because of Brittany catching her.

"Neither have I." She still stood in front of her bed. Why wasn't Brittany leaving? Brittany didn't reply, but her lips were pursed, almost as if she were amused.

"I have somewhere to be," she urged, and then she realised, she actually did. What time was it?

"So do I," Brittany said, unmoving. Santana glared at her. "Why are you smirking like that?" What if Brittany was actually a spy for her parents? It seemed plausible. How she kept managing to get in and out of the estate when the gate was locked. How Shadow liked her. Maybe it was because they had met before. Why she asked weird questions.

If Brittany told her parents about what the two of them had just done.

Well, things wouldn't be pretty.

"Because you're hot. You're all red and flustered. It's cute."

That wasn't the answer Santana had been expecting. "What?" she faltered.

"I want you to lie with me," Brittany announced. She shifted so that she was lying down in the right position on Santana's bed, as if she were going to sleep. Santana wanted to say no, to tell her to get out. She had a court hearing. She was a witness. She had to testify for her brother.

But she didn't want too. She didn't want to stand in front of hundreds of people only to be judged. For them to hold on to her every word, for half of them willing for her to stuff up, to say a sentence wrong, so that her brother could be condemned.

And she could still taste Brittany in her mouth. She didn't want too, but she liked it. And she doubted that this would ever happen again. Perhaps this was just a life-like dream. Maybe she'd taken too much of that medication before bed. Maybe she was hallucinating.

But as she clambered onto the bed, she felt Brittany's feather-like fingers brush against her bare arms. She had left her blazer on her desk, along with her speech. Along with her testimony. And she shuddered, knowing no amount of medication would be able to have conjured up this feeling inside of her. No amount could make her body feel the way it did.

"What are we doing?" Santana pursed her lips as she fell against Brittany's warm body. Brittany was looking up at her ceiling.

"Lying here."

"Why?"

"It's relaxing."

"Are we going to make out again?"

"Probably not."

"Why not?" Santana wanted to kick herself for asking that question.

"I have a boyfriend."

Disappointment flooded through Santana and she shook her head. She would have a boyfriend too, after this ordeal was over. That kiss with Brittany meant nothing. She was just full of the wrong kind of angst. She'd been away from humanity for way too long. That was all it was. A fleeting moment in which Santana had temporarily lost her wits.

"So why'd you kiss me?" she asked dauntingly. She tried to smirk, to play it off casual. She didn't want Brittany to get any weird ideas. Yet at the same time, Brittany lying next to her in her bed didn't make her uncomfortable. Actually, it was rather nice.

Santana shook her head. She needed to go back into society. She'd beg her parents to start school again next week, trial or no trial. She was going crazy.

"I don't know."

"Okay."

And so the two of them lay there. Their bare arms rubbed against each other occasionally but other than that, there was no other contact between them, physical or vocal. They lay like that, for a long time, when Brittany suddenly sprung up.

"I have somewhere to be," she said, as if she had realised what she had said all that time ago. "I actually have somewhere to be."

"Fuck!" Santana exclaimed, looking at the time. It was a quarter past two. She was late. So late. "So do I!"

Brittany turned to look at her wildly. "Show me out, please?" her voice was laced with desperation. Santana nodded, grabbing her blazer from her desk. She opened her bedroom door at the exact time both girls heard the front door open.

"Santana?" It was her father's voice. And he sounded absolutely furious.


	5. never dreamed i'd lose somebody like you

_It was a Wednesday night. It was mid-May so it was summer, and it was hot. Brittany had just come home from a four-hour shift at the dance studio in which she worked at. They were considering extending her shifts so that she could teach the Junior section also, and Brittany hoped that the management team approved it._

_Dancing was the only thing that seemed to take Brittany away from the reality of her life. The only time she could think freely was when her body was moving to the vibrations of music. And to get paid on top of that seemed like a mere bonus._

_"Brittany, I'm hungry!" Megan stood in Brittany's doorway. She had her tiny arms crossed against her chest and she was pouting. Brittany was lying on the floor. Her fingers were entwined with Lord Tubbington's tail._

_"I thought I told you to cook her dinner," Brittany murmured to the cat before she forced herself to get up off the cool floorboards. "Where's mom?"_

_"Mom's out," Megan said, but she spoke with a hesitation, and Brittany knew that her mother was probably out at the local pub again._

_"Do you want Maccas?" Brittany said, and she couldn't help grinning at the smile that took over Megan's face._

_"Really? Maccas? Really? Will I get a toy?"_

_"Sure will, kiddo." Brittany was sure she had enough money to treat Megan this once. She had dropped out halfway through senior year to work full-time, so she had been making more money than usual._

_Megan clapped and began to bounce around excitedly._

_"Hey, do you know where Felicity is?" she suddenly asked, frowning. Felicity had meant to be baby-sitting Megan tonight._

_Sometimes, Lord Tubbington just wasn't enough._

_"She said that someone really important invited her out," Megan said, her face turning serious again. Then, she covered her hand with her mouth as if she had said something that she shouldn't have. "She told me not to say anything."_

_Brittany felt irritated. "Did she say it was a boy?" Felicity shouldn't be so irresponsible. Megan was too young to be home alone. Sure, Brittany had been home alone heaps as a little kid, but she had had her unicorn named Betty to protect her. She was sure Megan didn't have the same thing._

_Megan looked at her almost slyly. "Will I get another toy if I answer your question?"_

_"You won't get any toy if you don't answer my question."_

_Megan sighed and stomped her little foot. "It was a boy that picked her up. He didn't pick her up from here. He picked her up from across the road. I watched through the window."_

_Brittany rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She would tell Felicity off when she got home. Let her go on a date with whoever this boy was. At least she wouldn't have to feed her. "Let's go get Maccas."_

* * *

_They hadn't been gone long. Brittany had realised that there was a mud stain on the hem of Megan's shorts so she decided to just buy the two Happy Meals then head home. She tucked her toy away. She could use it to bribe Megan at a later date._

_Megan had asked if Felicity would get one, but Brittany told her that only good girls who did what they were told got a Happy Meal, which made Megan nod and internally vow to always be good for her eldest sister._

_But when they had gotten home, they were welcomed with a scenario that they never could have imagined._

_There was a figure on the couch outlined by the shy glow of the television. It was a thin and nimble one, so Brittany knew it was Felicity and not her mother. She had opened her mouth, one hand on Megan's back, to tell Felicity off for watching the television at night-time, because everyone knew how much the electricity charge went up during the evening hours, when she realised something was wrong._

_Felicity wasn't leaning against the back of the couch like Brittany had originally thought. She was half-sitting upright, or she was trying too. Her body was slumped over one end and her legs seemed to be crossed over each other but Brittany wasn't able to tell which way they went or where her legs even started._

_"Go to your room." Megan didn't question it. She took one look at Felicity, her eyes wide, and disappeared the other way down the hall. She took both Happy Meals with her and Brittany didn't even care._

_"Felicity?" Brittany said cautiously. As she approached her younger sister, she noticed that she was shaking and that her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. She wondered if her sister had gotten incredibly drunk, more than Brittany ever had, or if she had smoked weed or done some other drugs. Brittany had no drug training. Should she call an ambulance?_

_Felicity opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. Her lips began to quiver and fear shot through Brittany. Where was their mother? She should be here. She should be taking care of them, of Felicity._

_"Where did you go?" Brittany needed to know everything she could to help Felicity. But all Felicity could do was tilt her head slightly to the side as if she were shaking her head._

_"Did you take something? Smoke something?" She reached out to touch Felicity's cheek, when it all happened._

_Her hand was smacked away with the loudest sting. Brittany retracted it and almost jumped back, but instead she looked at her sister with widened eyes._

_"Felicity?"_

_"I can't get it off."_

_"Get what off?" Brittany asked gently, daring to look at her reddening arm. Why had Felicity hit her? Felicity was never one for violence. She was small, and dainty, and the most girlish of the three of them. She definitely had to be on something. But what?_

_"Get it off!"_

_"Felicity, what did you take?" Brittany's voice rose a few octaves as she tried to grab her sisters hands and keep her restrained, but that made her sisters reaction worse._

_"I can't get him off!" She roared. The noise that escaped from her sisters lips didn't even sounded like they belonged to her._

_This time, Brittany took a step back. Now her bottom lip was quivering, and her mind began to race so wildly in so many directions when it suddenly landed on one conclusion, and it wasn't a reality she was prepared to face._

_"Please tell me you're on something." She was begging. She had never begged in her life._

_She noticed that Felicity's skirt seemed to ride up her thigh. She hadn't noticed it before. Brittany never noticed the little things. Her shirt was hanging off to one side and was her bra even clasped together at the back?_

_Felicity followed Brittany's gaze to her own body. "Can you get it off?"_

_"If you tell me what you took, I will get it off," Brittany said softly. She tried to sound as genuine as she can. Could Felicity even notice the way she lied?_

_"I can't get him off." Felicity was screaming again and Brittany hoped to god that Megan had shut her bedroom door and that her mother would be home soon. She shut her eyes and count to ten, trying to drown out Felicity's screaming, but when her eyes re-opened, it was still the same old scene._

_She counted to ten again. Nothing._

_And again. Nothing._

_Again. Nothing_

_"Who can't you get off?"_

_It was a question of defeat. Brittany lost count of how many minutes, or even hours had passed before her sister replied._

_It was a name. One simple name. Once uttered, Brittany would never forget it. She swore revenge in that moment, and she knew that no matter what, nothing would stop her from exacting it out._

_"Alexandro."_

* * *

"No," Santana whispered, her palm flat against the wall outside of her bedroom. She turned to Brittany, who stood there plainly and unblinkingly, and scowled. "You'll have to go out the window." It was the only rational thing to do. Brittany had to leave. Now.

"I can't," Brittany said, staring out the glass window and past Santana's balcony. "Your house is too high up. I'll die, and I don't want to die before the last Hunger Games movie comes out."

Santana's mouth felt slightly agape but she returned to her tense stance when her father appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"What the hell are you doing?" he roared. "Standing there? Are you waiting for a Prince to sweep you off your feet? Because I swear to God.."

She could feel pools of sweat gather underneath her chest as she watched her father storm up the fleet of stairs towards her room.

He was talking, but she couldn't hear him. What was he saying? Why wasn't he looking at Brittany? Asking questions? Did he know what they had just done?

She turned to look to her left, but Brittany was gone.

* * *

A week had passed. Nothing had changed between the court case and the entire Lopez family became restless. Their father worked constantly and never seemed to be home during the night or day. Their mother, a lawyer, though forbidden to go anywhere near this case that concerned her son, paced around the house listlessly. She didn't even complain when Shadow followed her like a shadow, of which he was named, even though she had used to squeal whenever the dog came within two metres of her.

Alexandro had set up most of his stuff in the guest room since his room was still blocked off and considered a 'crime scene.' He was the most irritable out of all of them. He snapped at their mother when she enquired what he would like for dinner, and so she would just make what she considered his most favourite dishes, but even that did not please him. Santana had tried talking to him, tried apologising, but it was too no avail. He iced her out and refused to answer any of her questions.

Santana too, became tense and unhappy as each day passed. She wished she had at least one friend, and she found that she ended up thinking about Brittany the most. In her solitary confinement she began to overanalyse everything that happened. The weird conversation. The kiss. How had Brittany even gotten out of the house without being seen? What if she was still in here? Santana shook her head. That was impossible.

So she begged her parents to make the principal at Avalona take her back in. They had too. She had gone thee since Pre-K. Her parents paid the multiple grand and all the extension fees every single year. They couldn't just kick her out because an event that she was _barely _involved in, right?

But the Principal had refused to let her back. He even talked to her parents about terminating her enrolment just so they could keep up the schools standards. They understood that, right? That Avalona's perfect reputation couldn't be tarnished with the event that the Lopez's were involved in. Lima was a small town, and people talked. It was merely something that couldn't be helped.

And so Doctor Lopez, sick of all the drama that this school so apparently believed in, terminated Santana's enrolment. When he'd told her, she screamed and all but threw a tantrum on the polished floorboards of the Lopez mansion. Her friends were there! Her entire life was there! How could they just terminate the enrolment just like that?

And so Doctor Lopez threw a tantrum of his own. She could go over what had happened again and again, or what he had said, but she decided not to dwell on it.

What she did decide to dwell on, however, was the fact that she was now enrolled in McKinley as of tomorrow. McKinley High School.  
The public school on the other end of town.  
The public school on the other end of town that _Felicity and all her friends attended._

She did, however, entertain the fact that Brittany could perhaps go there. She came from that part of town. Maybe all the other kids there were like Brittany. They would just be curious about the situation. She would enforce the obvious truth that her brother didn't do it, and maybe that would pique their curiosity. Maybe they'd even accept her into their group.

How low had she sunk from her glory days a few months ago to be feeling so much glee from the thought of being accepted by a bunch of random kids from the other end of town.

She sighed, sitting on the edge of her bed. Shadow placed his front paws over her patterned socks and she sighed again into his fur. The thought of Brittany owning a cat briefly came into her mind but she shook it away. She had more important things to think about.

Maybe she wouldn't go to school. Maybe she could be homeschooled, but she flinched when she remembered her father's answer when she had brought it up before at dinner, so she decided to just crawl up on the floor next to Shadow and sleep.

It was the only thing she could do before her life at McKinley began.

* * *

At Avalona, people would stand around the lounges, the fabric-coated couches, pulling their books from their locker each morning. Santana would take her usual route, and people would always stare. Out of envy, jealousy, lust.

Not with those looks that she was receiving now. People were _glaring _at her. It was obvious that they knew who she was. And it was obvious that whatever was left of Santana's school career was more than over.

Her locker had been conveniently placed right in the middle of the school, meaning that pretty much everyone gave her some kind of death stare and muttered some kind of insult as they made their way to class. For the first few people that did this, Santana would yell some of her old insults back, but after awhile she realised it was futile.

And then Quinn came along.

She was obviously the head bitch in charge at this school. She wore a tight stretchy skirt that was so short that it could barely leave anything to anyone's imagination. It was as red as the just-as-tight tank that she wore. She was followed by a posse of girls of equally stunning figures, and it was obvious they were all part of the cheer squad. Santana narrowed her eyes.

"How dare you come to this school?" Quinn was talking loudly and people were looking at the confrontation that was about to happen. Santana gritted her teeth in response and stormed right up to the cheerleader. She was still Santana Lopez, whatever school she was at.

"I came to do my SATs," she tried to start off in the most unbitchiest voice possible. If Quinn was in charge, then she didn't particularly want to anger her, because if she was already getting a negative reaction from the people at this school, then pissing Quinn off more would do no good.

"You don't deserve to do your SATs," Quinn's voice suddenly became annoying in Santana's ears. She had her hands on her hips and her head was cocked slightly sideways. Santana knew that Quinn had come to start shit. There was no way they were going to be friends, let alone acquaintances.

"Why? Scared I'll get a higher score than you will?" Santana stepped closer to Quinn, who involuntarily took a step back. An unsure look passed across Quinn's face briefly. Nobody had ever dared come that close to her, and it had confused her, but she quickly regained her status as she took another step towards Santana, to show she wasn't backing down. The two girls were almost nose to nose.

Quinn opened her mouth to presumably insult Santana once more, when Santana bet her to it.

"Think I don't remember? _Lucy?"_

That stopped Quinn. She froze in place and dropped the eye contact that she had been holding with Santana. People began to murmur behind her.

"Who's Lucy?"

"What does she mean?"

"_Who_ does she mean?"

Quinn swallowed, though she straightened her back once more. But Santana knew she had her. This was over.

"You wouldn't dare," she said quietly this time. Santana grinned, suddenly uncaring at what happened to her at this school. She'd do her SATs then she'd get the fuck out of Lima. She wouldn't have to see Lucy Quinn Fabray ever again. And hey, if she was going to disappear, might as well do it with a bang, right?

"I would dare, _Lucy __Quinn Fabray," _Santana spat. She looked past Quinn, to her followers, then to the people who had gathered in the hallway.

"Your top bitch used to fat and ugly. Don't believe me? Look up the past Avalona records to -"

Santana didn't finish, because she felt the air suddenly sucked from her lungs as Quinn pushed her into the lockers, a hand on each shoulder. Quinn was of average stature and she was thin, but boy, was she strong. Santana felt the impact of the metal locker slam into her head and she briefly wondered if she was going to get a concussion.

"You're just as pathetic as your rapist brother."

The words hit Santana harder than any other blow that Quinn could have directed towards her. When she realised she wasn't going to get a concussion, she charged into Quinn, slamming both of her palms just above Quinn's chest, knocking her to the floor.

As Quinn fell, Santana toppled on top of her, straddling her hips as she slapped the blonde again and again. Quinn fought back though, she didn't give up. She squirmed angrily underneath Santana and even punched her in the eye.

"_Stop the violence."_

The choice of words were not the only thing that made Santana's fist suddenly uncurl and fall to her side.

"Stop!"

The voice was so familiar that it made Santana's head shoot up to look in the direction that it was coming from.

"What are you doing here?" It was Quinn that spoke even though they were the words that Santana wanted to say. Brittany looked at the two who were wrestling on the floor and frowned. Santana clambered off Quinn and back away towards the locker, holding her arms out defensively just in case Quinn used this opportunity to attack her again.

But Quinn merely stood up, fixed her skirt and her ponytail, gave the crowd a defiant look, and then turned to Brittany. "So?"

Brittany looked unsure as to what to say, so Santana spoke. "Don't you go here?"

"She dropped out a year ago to work," Quinn spoke through gritted teeth and Santana wondered why Quinn had answered a question when she was pretty sure that Brittany was capable of answering it herself. Also, her left eye throbbed. She was pretty sure Quinn had given her a black eye.

"Why?" This surprised Santana. Brittany hadn't said it out loud, but the way she spoke made Santana think that Brittany was eager to get out of Lima too. Why would she drop out if she wanted a future out of here?

Brittany shrugged in response. "What were you two doing?"

Quinn side glanced Santana and then shrugged. She seemed to give Brittany a look of defeat. Santana wondered what that was about.

"Nothing," Quinn said. "Absolutely nothing."

"Didn't look like nothing," Brittany said quietly. Quinn shrugged. And when she spoke, she spoke in such a gentle tone that Santana had to blink twice to make sure it was still Quinn standing in front of her. "How's Felicity?"

At first Santana thought that the words directed at Brittany were another blow at her, but when Brittany shrugged again, Santana realised that they weren't.

She wanted to ask Quinn how Brittany would know how Felicity was. How 'the liar' was. Then again, Brittany had gone to this school, so perhaps they had all been friends. Quinn didn't seem to be showing any signs of aggression towards Brittany, so they were probably part of the same clique. Santana didn't know why, but she felt the tiniest bit jealous. She shook her head.

"So why are you here?" Quinn repeated her first question. She waved her hand and the crowd began to disperse until it was just the three of them in the hallway. Brittany pursed her lips. "I just came to get some..stuff." She spoke vaguely and Quinn gave her a confused look. Santana wasn't sure what she was meant to be doing so she walked back to her locker. She doubted Quinn would attack her then and there with Brittany standing idly by.

"What are you doing here?" Brittany asked Santana, who turned around after she had gathered her books.

"My parents made me transfer here," she replied, glaring daggers at Quinn who was conveniently looking at something past her. "I had no choice. So don't think I came here to antagonise you, you little bitc-"

"Okay," Quinn cut her off. "I couldn't care less. I'm going to class. Wouldn't want to fail my SATs." She spoke with an air that irritated Santana to no end, and then she disappeared down the hall.

"So what are you doing here?" Santana asked Brittany curiously. Brittany looked at her, an uncomfortable look covering her face. "Just came to get..stuff."

"Okay," she said slowly. "Well I'm going to class."

"Okay," Brittany responded. Santana felt awkward as she turned around to find her class, leaving Brittany standing by herself in the middle of the hallway.

"See you around?" Brittany's voice suddenly cut through the silence of the hallway.

Santana paused, feeling the tiniest of smiles creep across her face. "Yeah."

* * *

Class was just as horrible. Even the teachers gave her curious and rather scared looks. Santana wished she had just stayed at home instead. Being around her hostile family was probably better than being at this school. Maybe she could just repeat her senior year next year when this whole thing was solved and she was back to being who she was. What was a year, anyway?

The bell rang and Santana practically sprinted back to her locker. To her dismay, Quinn stood in front of her locker. Santana tensed, shifting her books to one side in case Quinn wanted to continue what they had left off. But to her surprise, as she got closer, the only expression on Quinn's face seemed to be curiosity.

"You spoke to Brittany like you knew her."

Santana raised an eyebrow. "You're blocking my locker." She spoke with hostility. Whatever game Quinn was playing, she wasn't going to play along.

Quinn stepped swiftly to the side, making Santana raise her other eyebrow. She put her books away, all too aware of the gaze that Quinn was still giving her. She grabbed her backpack out of her locker and slammed it shut. Quinn didn't flinch.

"So?"

"So what, _Lucy?"_

She watched Quinn flinch ever so slightly from her name, but Santana's day had been so shitty even that didn't give her the joy it did in the morning.

"Do you know her?"

Did she? What if Brittany told her friends that she had kissed Alexandro's sister? She felt her blood turn cold.

"No."

"Sure seemed like you did."

"Are you going to follow me all day?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I want to know."

"I don't really think it's any of your business," Santana snapped, pushing open the giant doors that lead to her freedom. She had taken the bus to school today. Her parents didn't want to drive her, and she knew if she drove her own car, a Mercedes, then someone was bound to key it, or worse.

"Do you want a lift home?"

Santana sighed in exasperation and turned around to face the girl who had punched her about three times in the face that morning. "What the fuck do you want?"

"Honestly?'

"No, I want you to fucking lie to me," sarcasm oozed from Santana's tone.

Quinn looked at her as if she were sizing her up, which pissed Santana off more. "Brittany doesn't really have any friends."

"That's a bit rude. Do you really think you do? With your whole cheerleader get-up? Do you think people want to get to know you because of your personality?" Santana couldn't keep the hostility out of her tone. She hated that Quinn was talking about Brittany. And insulting her, at that.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way," Quinn bit her own tongue, trying to remain as collected as possible. "I'm just saying that if you two are friends..then.."

"Then you're going to invite me into your little cheerleader gang? That all will be well at McKinley? What happened to ruining my life even though I took no fucking part in whatever the fuck happened to your little friend?"

Annoyance flashed over Quinn's face. "I'm just saying that maybe you're not on the enemies side."

Santana craned her neck, mirroring Quinn's annoyed expression. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Are you calling my brother the enemy? Did it occur to you that maybe your little friend is a _liar?"_

Quinn flinched. "If you're so sure that your brother is innocent," she spat. "Then why are you friends with Brittany?"

"I didn't say we were friends, did I?" Santana turned on her heel and walked away, sick of this conversation that seemed to only be going around in circles.

"Brittany told me she came down to the school today because she didn't want anyone to give you trouble."

Santana froze. "What? Why would she do that? How did she even know?"

Quinn half-shrugged. "Puckerman was in the Principal's office when your parents enrolled you."

Santana couldn't even be bothered to ask who the fuck Puckerman was. "Why would she do that?"

"It beats me," Quinn pursed her lips. "But Brittany is my friend, so I'm respecting her wishes."

So they were friends. Which meant that Felicity was also Brittany's friend. So what was Brittany trying to do? Gather intel?

"Well she isn't mine," Santana snapped, suddenly feeling betrayed. She was suddenly sure that Brittany was going to tell everyone that Santana had kissed her if the court case didn't go the way she wanted. She stormed towards the bus, only to find it leaving. A few people on the bus who had their noses up against the window snickered at her and Santana curled her hands in a fist.

"Do you want a lift?" Quinn was behind her again and Santana was about three seconds away from slapping her in the face again.

"No, I'd literally rather walk the fucking twenty kilometres back to Lima Heights than be stuck with you in a car for even three seconds."

"I live in Lima Heights too. Your house is on the way."

Of course she knew where Santana lived. Didn't everybody? Santana sighed irritably. She didn't really want to walk, and if she had to take a bus with the rest of these losers, well, she'd rather not. "Fine." At least if Quinn was going to secretly murder her and dump her body somewhere, well, it was probably better than any other fate that the world had in store for her.

Quinn led them back to her car. It was a shiny, brand new Volkswagen Beetle. It was also red. Santana's favourite colour.  
"Nice car," she said. Quinn shrugged in response as she started the engine.

"Why wasn't Brittany with you that night if you're all so close?" It was a question that had nagged Santana ever since she realised they were friends.

"Brittany? She wouldn't hang out with her sister outside of home."

"What?"

Quinn stopped at the traffic light and turned to look at Santana. "It was a weird night. Usually I only hang with Brittany but she was at work or something. The only person free was Rachel." Quinn cringed. "Usually we don't hang out. We only know each other from Glee club, but I don't know, she has a crush on Finn and I want him to get over me so I brought her along."

"Wow, I really don't care," Santana leaned back. "You didn't answer my question."

Quinn bit her lip. "Well me and Rachel are Brittany's age, anyway. We're all seniors. Felicity is a couple of years younger than us. But she wanted to hang with us that nigh and Brittany couldn't, so I figured I could just substitute her in. Like three girls, three guys, you know?"

"No, I don't know."

Quinn ignored her. "I guess we just took her along. I should blame myself for what happened, really. She shouldn't have been with us."

Santana was surprised. "Don't blame yourself," she said before she could stop herself. She was about to add that it was nobody's fault, but now she was confused. Felicity was a liar, wasn't she? Her brother didn't commit any crime, so then whose fault was it? What exactly was Quinn blaming herself for if nothing happened?

"Nothing happened so you can't blame yourself for it," Santana mumbled the rest and then looked out the window. Quinn turned to look at her gently.  
"You really believe your brother is innocent, don't you?" It wasn't a taunting question. Quinn's voice sounded sincere and kind of sympathetic.

"Yeah, cause he is," Santana snapped back. It was quiet for awhile, but then Santana remembered what she had wanted to know before.  
"What did you mean about Brittany's sister? Who's her sister?"

"Huh?" Quinn turned to look at her in genuine surprise as she pulled up in Santana's never-ending driveway.

"Felicity? Brittany's younger sister is Felicity. Didn't you know that?"

* * *

**AN: I was trying to do it from Brittany's /then Santana's and so on but I sort of forgot this chapter so it's split up into two. The flashback scene was Brittany's P.O.V and the current time is Santana's :)**

**Hope you all had a safe and happy holidays!**

P.S - This fic is also based on the song 'Wicked Game' by Gemma Hayes. Probably should have mentioned it earlier but I forgot. Each chapter is named after the lyrics.


	6. no, I don't want to fall in love

8 months prior;

* * *

_"What do you want for your sixteenth birthday?"_

_"Huh?" Santana looked to her brother who was standing in the doorway. His arms were crossed against his chest and he wore his trademark smirk. Their mother called it his 'charming smile' but both Santana and Alexandro knew that he only used it to get his way._

_He was the golden boy, after all. Handsome. Smart. It was easy for him to get his own way, smirk or no smirk._

_"What do you want, sis? Anything. I'll get it for ya."_

_Santana rolled her eyes. "First off, don't call me sis. Second off, I don't want anything. Except maybe your brotherly affection." She said the last part sarcastically and her brother laughed good-naturedly. He walked towards her and enveloped her in a large bear hug, his muscles bulging on either side of Santana's body as he began to tickle her._

_"Stop!" she screamed, but she was laughing. "Stop!"_

_"Can you two stop making such a racket?" their father yelled from somewhere down the hallway. "I'm trying to work!"_

_"He's always trying to work," Santana groaned, leaning against her armchair. She had a much better relationship with her father than her mother, if she was being completely honest. But recently, ever since her dad's mother, her abuela, had moved to a nursing home, their dad seemed so distant. The only reason why they'd put her in the nursing home was because her dementia had become unbearable for her to live on her own._

_Alexandro suggested that it their father blamed himself for not being able to fix her. He was a doctor, after all. Santana had shrugged. Maybe that was true._

_Alexandro watched as the corners of Santana's lips pulled down slightly at the ends. He didn't like seeing his younger sister frown. He had sworn he would do anything to make her happy. Ever since he held her in his tiny childish arms that day at the hospital when she had been born._

_"You miss her, huh?" he asked. Santana glanced back up at her older brother, perched carefully on her armchair. "Nah," she shrugged honestly. "I miss Shadow a lot more than I miss her, if we're being completely honest."_

_Her brother snorted. "Trust. It's a shame poor Shadow got dumped at the pound. He's probably going to get put down."_

_Sadness flashed across Santana's eyes and her brother was sharp enough to see it. "Yeah."_

_"I remember when you were like six and he was a puppy and he was still bigger than you," Alexandro nudged his sister in an effort to cheer her up. Santana smiled half-heartedly, but her face quickly changed into that of defense as she quickly added, "Cool story."_

_"Don't be like that," her brother scolded. "It's not bad to show emotion sometime, Santana."_  
_He hadn't meant to say it so casually, or during this conversation, but it was something he had noticed for a long time. Ever since Santana ceased her childish ways. When she started to blossom into a 'young woman' as their mother so eloquently put it. She seemed so blocked off from the world. Like something was hurting her and she shut everyone out as if it would prevent the pain. He had asked her about it on occasion but she never gave him a straight answer, or merely said that there was none at all._

_"You can talk to me about anything going on." He said, trying to pull her close. He remembered when she was a toddler and how he used to piggyback her everywhere, or when it was her first day of elementary school and he went with her to make sure that she made the right friends._

_Oh, how times had changed._

_"You know that, right? Is it school? Is it a boy problem? Is it-?"_

_"No," Santana suddenly snapped, almost flinching when she heard the word 'boy'. She lay her palm flat on her thigh and then clenched it again as she let out a heavy sigh._

_Alexandro wasn't sure he believed her. "Santana.." he began when suddenly her eyes flashed violently. "I don't care about a stupid dog," she snapped at him, suddenly standing up and backing towards the bed. "I don't care about Shadow and I don't care if he dies." With that, she stomped out of her room. Alexandro stared after her, watching her disappear down the grand staircase that seemed a little too showy even for his taste._

_He sighed and looked up at some of the photos on her wall. There was one with her cheerleading squad; a group photo, one with a couple of her close friends whom Alexandro couldn't remember their names because he never really liked them, one with her family, and finally, one with her and Shadow._

_It certainly looked like she cared about him in that photo._

* * *

_"Alexandro, what is going on?"_

_Santana was lying in bed. Her Macbook was open next to her. Facebook was open and she slowly watched as the numbers of her unread inbox increased as people continued to message her. She couldn't be bothered replying to anyone, so when she heard her mother's absolutely outraged voice, she sat up, interested._

_"You are filthy! And what is that with you? Don't tell me-"_

_"Mom, relax. It's fine. It's Santana present."_

_"You certainly didn't ask our permission to bring this thing into our house." It was their father's voice now. Santana shut her laptop and crept towards the door, peering out of it. She could see Alexandro had managed to make it into the middle hall before he had been stopped by their parents. He was covered in mud, from his waist down, and next to him, wagging his tail slowly, was Shadow._

_At first Santana didn't believe it was him. After all, how many other black German Shepherds were there? But she would recognise his physique, and his large soulful brown eyes from a mile away, and when she did, she let out an excited squeal and bounded downstairs, wrapping her arms around the muddy dog straightaway. Not even caring if her brand new pyjamas got dirty._

_Their dad let out an aggravated sigh. The dog was just another reminder of his failure to help his mother, but at the same time, he had noticed the sadness that had somehow arisen in his daughter disappear the second she wrapped her arms around this beasts neck. So he gave the slightest nod to his wife, who returned the look._

_"We can keep him. He's old anyway." Was all he said, before he followed his wife back into the kitchen._

* * *

_"_No."

Santana's voice was barely a whisper. Brittany had almost missed it. But Santana's distraught body posture was enough to convey how much she didn't want Brittany there. So she turned around and quickly surveyed her surroundings. She could run back into Santana's room and hide somewhere. Under the bed, in a corner? In the closet, perhaps? But what if her dad came and found her? It would look so much worse if she was hiding than if Santana just introduced her as a friend, or something.

After all, what was the harm in Santana just introducing her to her dad and then just apologising for being late? Sure, Brittany had come to Santana's house to distract her on purpose, but she had no idea that Santana's parents would leave the court hearing just to find her. Maybe Santana was a lot more important to the case than she had originally thought. She swallowed loudly. Which meant she needed to be on Santana's side more than ever.

"You'll have to go out the window."

Brittany swung her gaze to the brunette and her jaw dropped open. Okay, she wanted to stay on Santana's good side, but she didn't want to die doing it.

"I can't," Brittany said, glancing out the glass window. She quickly remembered how high up the second storey was from the outside. "Your house is too high up. I'll die, and I don't want to die before the last Hunger Games movie comes out."

She watched a surprised expression cross Santana's face before she fixated on her father's figure storming up the stairs. Brittany shut her eyes and sighed, pressing her finger on her forehead. She turned around but Santana was too busy staring terrified at her father's oncoming arrival to even notice Brittany slink out behind her, back into her bedroom. She rounded the corner and then decided that if Santana's dad decided to come into Santana's room, she could just casually strut out and say that she forgot..something, and she had just come over to get it. It seemed pretty fool-proof.

And for the first time ever, her fool-proof plan actually managed to stay fool-proof.

* * *

That was, until her legs began to cramp underneath her in Santana's tiny little closet. Once she had heard two pairs of footsteps disappear down the stairs, Brittany had quickly darted into the closet and buried herself under perfume-sprayed clothes. She had tried counting the minutes going by on her hand, but she soon ran out of fingers and couldn't be bothered using her toes.

So she had been in there a long time.

She hesitant pushed open the closet door and crept out, quickly trying to decide the best way out. She definitely could not climb out the window. Or could she? People had always said she was like a cat. She walked quickly to the double glass door that led to the small balcony, and Brittany had no time to wish that she had this kind of life. To have her own private balcony. To not worry about money. She shook her head and opened it, thanking god it wasn't locked. There was a large fruit tree of some kind plastered to one side, and a long water pipe that lead to the ground.

Her eyes widened in surprise. She had never noticed it before. It didn't take long for her to shimmy down the pipe, occasionally using the tree to help her climb down until she was safely on the ground.

After about an hour she was home. Felicity's eyes were red and their mother had her arm around her as they sat on their tattered couch. Megan was nowhere to be seen.

"Was whatever you had going on more important than your sister?" her mother's icy voice cut through the awkward silence as Brittany entered the living room.

"Nothing's more important than Felicity. That's why I couldn't make today," Brittany said in reply.

"That doesn't make sense," their mother hissed. "I am trying to do what's right by Felicity and you're probably just off with some boy, and I'll tell you now-"

Brittany didn't listen to the rest. She didn't need too. There was an emotion that she felt stirring low in her belly, one that she had never really felt before.

Embarrassment.

And she knew exactly what she was embarrassed about. Her mother thought that she was spending time with a boy. But she wasn't.

Because Santana was a girl.

She bit her lip and decided not to reply to anything anybody was saying. She then noticed an empty whisky bottle nestled next to her mother, in the small cushion insert on the side of the couch and sighed.

"Come here, Felicity."

Her younger sister fell into her arms willingly. Maybe she was glad that she was away from their alcohol-ridden mother. Their mom mumbled something and then disappeared into the kitchen.

"How was the court hearing?"

"It didn't happen. The witness didn't show," Felicity said in such a low voice that Brittany sighed in relief when she managed to understand them.

"What? San-, I mean, the bastard's sister didn't show?"

"Yeah. They needed her appeal so they couldn't continue. They rescheduled it. The new one is in two weeks, now."

"Wow," Brittany said. Okay, so truth be told that's what her plan was. Show up to Santana's house. Distract her. Make her miss the hearing. Make her parents and family pissed off at her. Make sure that she was pissed off at them. And then she'd tell Brittany any secrets against them that she could use in the court case against Alexandro.

What wasn't included in her plan was that kiss. Even now while her sister was talking to her, she could feel the way Santana's lips had pressed against hers almost carnally. It was the most intense and passionate thing that Brittany had ever felt in her life and she found part of herself yearning for more.

But her sister was her main priority, and she was reminded of that when her sister nestled her head in the crook of Brittany's shoulder. She felt Felicity's wet cheek press desperately against her own bare skin, and though she knew it shouldn't, it reminded her of Santana in a way. There was the same look in both of their eyes. Eyes crying out desperately for help.

Ugh. She needed to stop thinking about Santana. It wasn't healthy for anyone. It wasn't even normal for crying out loud. They were in the middle of their families being pitted against one another, and Brittany needed as much ammo as possible to use against the Lopez's before the next course case.

She needed to stop the thoughts that slipped into her mind worrying about how this would affect Santana. Or Santana's reaction when she realised Brittany had betrayed her.

"Santana isn't important," Brittany chanted over and over again through gritted teeth. "Not important at all."

So she had two weeks. Two weeks to make sure that Santana did not find out who she was. To make sure she did not find out that she was a Pierce.

* * *

Not much had changed after a week. Not much that was, until one day Brittany woke up to find Puck sitting at her dining table.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Mornin' to you too, sweetheart," he replied, tipping the chair forward slightly. Felicity sat opposite him, clean and clothed, and Brittany tried to hide her surprise. Felicity was leaning forward slightly, too, as if she were interested in what Puck had to say.

"He brought me a Kinder Surprise," Megan announced, walking in behind Brittany. She still had her pyjamas on but at least she too, was clean.

"I got one too," Felicity said in an adoring voice. Now it made sense as to why they were both interested in him.

Brittany sighed. "Clear out, you kids," she said. When nobody moved, she spoke again with a sterner voice. Finally, Felicity took Megan's hand in hers and they walked down the hall.

"It doesn't take much to make them happy, huh?"

"What's that meant to mean?" Brittany asked, sitting down where Felicity had been. "Why are you here?"

"I thought we were friends," Puck said innocently. Brittany stared at him blankly.

"Okay, fine. I'm here because the other day I locked the wheelchair kid in the portable cubicle so Finn would like, prove his loyalty to the football team, yeah?"

"Um. No. Why would you lock a disabled kid in the port-a-potty. What the fuck, Puck?"

"Hey that rhymed, hey!" he exclaimed as Brittany smacked him on the head. "It's a football club versus the Glee club thing. You wouldn't understand since you dropped out of school altogether."

Brittany narrowed her eyes. "I might go back. I can still graduate. I can catch up."

Puck looked at her doubtfully but his expression softened. "You're dealing with Felicity. That's gotta be hard. I'm sorry."

Brittany bit her lip. She didn't want Puck's sympathy. "So?"

"Anyway, Figgins caught me so I was waiting for him in his office, yeah? And guess who comes in?"

"Who?"

"Mr. _Lopez," _he said the name with a fake French accent, which confused Brittany since she was pretty sure Santana was Spanish.

"What, are you sure?"

"Yeah, I recognise him from all the news reports and stuff. Figgins said his name too, just to clarify. And guess why he was there?"

"Why?" For the first time in his life, Puck had Brittany's full attention.

"He was enrolling Santana at McKinley."

Brittany was pretty sure that if she had been eating or drinking she would have spat out whatever had been in her mouth.

"What? You're fucking with me, right?"

"No. She got kicked out of her old school or something, since her jerk-off brother was bad for their rep, or something. Who knows?"

"When does she start?"

Puck raised an eyebrow. "You aren't gonna come down and bash her, are ya? On second thoughts, that's not such a bad idea. I'm sure Quinn would love to help."

"Doubtful," she said. "So do you know?"

"Of course I know," Puck looked almost offended. "Today."

Brittany's eyes widened as she glanced at the clock. "But it's almost 9. Why are you here if you start school now?"

Puck shrugged.

Brittany sighed.

* * *

After forcing Puck to head to his class, Brittany roamed the familiar halls of McKinley, hoping for some reason they had isolated Santana and that no-one was worrying her.

She realised however, her hopes were futile when she saw a large group of people and Quinn's voice raised above the shouting. She sighed and pushed her way through the crowd, hoping that it was nothing major. She hoped that a freshman had just stepped on Quinn's new shoes or something and that's why she was losing it, but when she saw a familiar brunette that made her heart do these weird little flips, she knew it wasn't.

"Stop the violence!" she yelled out once she managed to brush through the crowd. She swear she saw Santana's hand fall quickly to the side at the sound of her voice but she wasn't sure. She saw Quinn underneath Santana, suddenly tensing as if she were going to aim another punch.

"Stop!" Brittany shrieked. She wasn't able to stop a blush rise quickly to her cheeks at the sight of Santana straddling another girl. It made her remember the last time she had seen her.

"What are you doing here?" Quinn asked Brittany Santana awkwardly clambered off her, avoiding all eye contact with anybody.

Brittany didn't reply. She hadn't thought of a white lie to cover up that track yet.

"So?" Quinn asked impatiently. Brittany knew that she was in 'bitch mode.' And while she was grateful for Quinn being loyal, she wished that Quinn had minded her own business for once.

"Don't you go here?" Santana's gaze felt like it was burning through Brittany's skin.

"She dropped out a year ago to work." Quinn answered Santana's question as she noticed the muted look on Brittany's face.

"Why?"

"What were you two doing?" Brittany eventually asked as she managed to find her voice.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"Didn't look like nothing."

"How's Felicity?"

Brittany didn't want to answer her question. Not here."

"So why are you here?" Quinn had so many questions. Brittany sighed.

She answered vaguely. "I just came to get some..stuff."

Quinn eventually left for class and soon Santana excused herself too. Brittany felt herself automatically following her until she reminded herself that she didn't even go here anymore.

"See you around?"

She wasn't sure why she had said it. She had entertained the thought that Santana hated her somewhere during the week. But it didn't seem so. Santana's expression was guarded, but not hateful. It seemed curious, but also defensive at the same time. Brittany wondered how one pretty face could show so much emotion on it. But she wanted to know. She wanted to know Santana.

'For Felicity's sake,' a angel on Brittany's shoulder reminded her of what her purpose was.

'Or for Brittany's,' the devil chucked darkly. Brittany swatted absent-mindedly at her shoulders until she remembered that they were figments of her imagination and she couldn't actually hit them.

"Yeah."

Brittany swear she saw a smile on Santana's face.

* * *

Brittany waited around for Quinn until recess. She wanted so badly to join in at random classrooms, even though when she actually did go here all she did was eat in class and day-dream about dancing. But still, it didn't hurt to dream.

"So why are you here, now that we're alone?" Brittany felt amused that she didn't even need to seek out Quinn. That Quinn just knew. She wondered if there was a parallel universe where her and Quinn were friends with Santana somewhere. She thought the three of them would make a good trio.

A good bitch trio.

"I don't want anyone to be mean to Santana," Brittany said in a quiet voice. "It wasn't her that did anything wrong."

Quinn's face displayed pure shock. "Seriously, Brittany? I know you can be kind to those who don't deserve it. Take Rachel, for instance. You're the only reason I hung out with her and look how tha-, well, never mind. That's not the point. Her brother hurt your family."

"That's right," Brittany said, nodding her head slowly. "Her brother. Not her. I know how hard high school is. Please don't make it worse for her."

"Alright," Quinn agreed doubtfully. Brittany knew she had more questions and she respected the fact that she didn't ask them. She didn't want to talk about Santana to anyone.

"So how's Fel?"

"Puck brought her a Kinder Surprise this morning. She's happy."

"Still a kid," Quinn smiled fondly, batting away the images of Felicity being not so childish. She shook her head. "And how are you?"

"As good as I can be," Brittany shrugged in response. "As good as I can be."

* * *

Brittany wasn't sure why once again, she stood outside Santana's property after that school day. Perhaps it was curiosity. Did Santana really want to see her again or was that an excuse to not cause another scene?

Either way, she did not hesitate to shimmy up the wall and up to the front door. She contemplated climbing up the way she had come down but then she decided that it was too stalker-ish. She knew her parents weren't home because their most prissy car of all was gone, and so Brittany knocked hesitantly on the front door.

Santana answered awhile later. There was a large smile on her face though it seemed weird to Brittany. She decided to shrug it outside and she returned the hug that Santana was strangely offering her.

"Coming up to my room?"

"Um, yeah," Brittany said. "How was school?"

Santana's face fell slightly and Brittany felt a twinge of sympathy for the other girl. "Could've been better."

"That's why I left," Brittany said half-jokingly. She gave Santana a friendly punch on the arm which Santana regarded oddly.

It was when they got to Santana's doorframe that everything quickly became strange. Santana's lips suddenly forced themselves against Brittany's, and once Brittany realised what was going on, she eagerly kissed back.

Maybe a little too easily.

There was a strange aura in the air that day and maybe that was why. Maybe somehow something knew that they were going to kiss again. And though Brittany didn't want to admit it, it was something she had been waiting for since the very first time.

She gripped Santana's shoulders and guided her further into the room. She tried not to wonder why Santana wasn't holding her back, but easily enough Santana was slowly walking back to her bed, and soon Brittany found herself on top of her. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks as she broke off the kiss, and stared down into Santana's face. A lot of Santana's face was covered by Brittany's hair and she laughed. She moved so that she could clear her face but Santana gave her the slight shake of her head, which stopped Brittany in her tracks.

"I want you to take my shirt off."

Brittany leaned back slightly, for some reason all too willing. She had never felt this eager before. Was it because this was with Santana? What was the difference between Santana, whom she was technically using for other reasons, and those guys from her school? She barely knew either parties, so why did this feel like an alien experience?

But something in Santana's expression was off. So she stopped suddenly and got off Santana altogether. She watched Santana sit up behind her. She looked pissed off.

"Don't you want me?"

There was malice laced in Santana's tone and Brittany frowned.

"What are you doing?"

Santana glanced quickly to something on her left before she met Brittany's gaze. Brittany, who had never quite paid this much attention to someone's face, noticed.

She followed Santana's gaze only to see an awkwardly shaped pillow on top of a fancy dressing table opposite the bed. Santana rushed to stop her, but Brittany was quick. She reached the pillow before Santana and knocked it over, only to reveal a video camera.

"What the fuck?" Brittany asked slowly. Santana looked at her defiantly, but as Brittany began to piece the puzzle together, her tough expression quickly faltered.

Santana had filmed them. Filmed them kissing. Making out. Brittany on top of her.

Why?

"Why?"

Santana considered not answering, but she had already been caught out. What had she left to lose?

Nothing. She realised bitterly. Absolutely nothing.

"Why what? Brittany _Pierce." _She spat out the last word with such contempt that she could have said any other last name and Brittany would still have known that she was caught.

"How'd you find out?" Brittany asked quietly, clutching the video camera to her chest.

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that your that..your her _sister. _That's why you were here. You were..spying on us? Spying on me!"

"You were spying on me too," Brittany countered, dangling the video camera in front of Santana's face. "What? Are you going to use it as blackmail? That I made out with a girl? That's old news, Santana. No-one's going to care when there are bigger issues at hand."

Santana had the decency to blush, but she also flinched. She opened her mouth as if she were going to ask a question about something that Brittany said, but then decided against it.

"I wasn't going to blackmail you with it," Santana spoke. "I was..I filmed you putting me in a compromising situation. Do you understand that?"

Brittany narrowed her eyes. "A compromising position? Why?"

Santana cast her eyes to the ground. "Does it matter?"

"Yes, it does! You used me!" Brittany's words sounded so heartbroken that Santana took a step back in surprise. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish before she managed to grasp a response.

"You used me first!"

"I used you to help my sister!"

"And I was using this to help my brother!" Santana screamed back at her. Her face was red and if this was happening under any other circumstance, Brittany might have been scared. But the thought of her sister kept her going, gave her courage.

"Your brother's a rapist! A sexual offender. What's it like, being the sister of _that?" _

By a rule, Brittany had never been mean. In Pre-K, she used to give the other kids her candy. It wasn't because she didn't like candy, but because the other kids seemed to like it more.  
In elementary, she used to share what little toys she had with the other kids. She didn't even cry when they got wrecked.  
And in high school, even though she had been part of the Cheerios, the cheer squad, she didn't bully the unpopular kids. She never slushied anybody. She encouraged Quinn to be nicer to the underdogs.

No, Brittany had never been mean. So to have words spewing from her mouth like that shocked something from inside her. The reality of hearing her own slurs in her ears made her realise something.

"Santana, I-"

"Your sisters a liar. A lying slut." Santana's voice was cold and harsh and even though Brittany flinched at the words, she could tell that Santana didn't mean them. They came out weak and almost as if she were lying herself. She watched as Santana's frail looking body started to shake against the edge of her bed.

"She isn't," Brittany knew she shouldn't even try but she felt as if she were doing her sister an injustice by not denying it. Santana slumped uselessly against her bed as if she too had realised the futility of her and Brittany arguing.

"We're both in shitty positions. Sorry," Santana eventually said. She managed to sit upright on her bed and after a hesitant moment, she patted the seat next to her. Brittany sat down, though she felt tense, but in case Santana decided to suddenly attack her.

"It's not your fault," Brittany said quietly, playing with her fingers. Santana glanced down at them and smiled. Despite everything, Brittany was cute.

Which made this all so much worse.

"Whose fault is it, then?" Santana asked bitterly. "He says he didn't do it. She says he did. He says he wasn't there. She says he was. When can we draw the line, Britt? How can we possibly determine who's telling the truth and who isn't?"

"I don't think we can," Brittany said, staring at the tip of her toes. "I guess we just have to wait."

"Wait for what? Someone to admit they were lying? No-one will. They won't screw up their own lives for the other person to get off, no matter whose it is. We're caught between a rock and a hard place."

"At least we're together."

"Huh?"

"Well, we're both stuck between a rock and a hard place," Brittany offered Santana a small smile. "We're both stuck in an awful position. It's not us that's involved, but we're not exactly outsiders either. Weird, huh?"

"I think it's more upsetting than weird. But sure," Santana gave her a hesitant smile back.

"I'm sorry I called your sister a slut. She might not be."

"I'm sorry I called your brother a, uh, sexual offender. He might not be," Brittany mimicked Santana's tone, and the two shared a light chuckle.

"This sucks so much," Santana shook her head, tears brimming in her eyes suddenly. "So, so much."

Brittany decided not to say anything. After all, what could she say? That she agreed? That was pretty much a given.

So instead she held out her hand.

"You want me to hold your hand?" Santana looked at her dubiously.

"Well you've already kissed me," Brittany said jokingly though she noticed the obvious way that Santana flinched as if she had been hit. She wished she hadn't said it. "But no." She wiggled her pinky around instead. "I want you to hold this."

Santana's forehead creased in confusion but she decided not to question Brittany, which Brittany appreciated. Everyone was always questioning her. What she was doing. What she meant by what she said, by what she was about to do. But it was different with Santana. Everything was different with Santana.

And she knew Santana could feel it too. She shut her eyes. No, she didn't want to fall in love.

* * *

**AN: Sorry if the flashback seemed a little unrelated to the current events. It was written to show the sibling bond between Alexandro and Santana :)**

And sorry if the update was slower than the rest. I've been veeery busy over the holiday period but I do try and update when I can. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I would appreciate feedback!


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